Thomas Maheras

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Thomas G. Maheras was co-president of Citigroup at the time of the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis.^[1]

A Notre Dame graduate, he worked as runner on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He started at Salomon Brothers in 1984 and by the early 1990s had become one of Wall Street’s top traders of junk bonds.^[1] He was running Salomon’s bond trading business in 1996, and after the 1997 merger of Travelers and Salomon, rose to co-president in 2007, with oversight of Citigroup’s trading and bond operations.^[1]

As the head of its large capital markets division, Maheras had broad oversight for all aspects of trading and investment.^[1]

In 2004 and 2005, senior executives at the bank, including Robert E. Rubin, Citi’s director, urged it to become more actively involved with structured credit, pools of securities backed by different assets, and commodities.^[1] The buildup in CDO’s began at this time, several reporting layers beneath Mr. Maheras.^[1] By 2006, Citigroup had become the second-leading underwriter of CDO’s.^[1]

After the collapse in the market, Charles O. Prince III demoted him and he chose to leave the firm.^[1] As of January 2008, he was being courted by a number of other Wall Street firms.^[1]