Financial History Issue 124 (Winter 2018) | Page 9

MUSEUM NEWS   I’d like to recognize David Cowen and his team at the Museum for their commit- ment to preserving, exhibiting and teach- ing about American finance and financial history. We are all grateful for your work, which assures future generations will learn from and appreciate finance. I would also like to congratulate Tim Geithner on receiving the Whitehead Award for Distinguished Public Service and Financial Leadership. Tim’s decisive actions played a critical role in protect- ing our financial system during the Great Financial Crisis. On behalf of all of us gathered here this evening, thank you, Tim, for your public service. I am truly flattered to be honored this evening as an innovator. It sounds so much sexier than being honored for being a CEO. First, let me observe that Citadel is built upon a foundation laid by those who came before us. The two prior recipients of this award, Charles Schwab and Joe Rick- etts, have devoted their careers to laying that foundation. When Citadel launched its US equities market making business about a decade ago, Ameritrade was our cornerstone partner. And they were a perfect partner. Fair, transparent and demanding. They made us earn our business with them and pushed us to excel. Over a decade later, Citadel is by far the largest market maker in the US equities market and in many countries around the world. And we owe the success of this story to the team at Ameritrade, for being such great partners with us for so many years. Now, wh at has been the key to our suc- cess over the years — I’ll be the first to admit it — I’ve been at the right place at the right time many times in life. As Joe mentioned, I grew up in Boca Raton, Florida, and he put it very nicely — my parents bribed me. My mom wanted me to go to public school. She wanted me to have the experience of dealing with a very diverse student base. And she said if you go to public school, I’ll buy you a personal computer. And I made that trade in a heartbeat. And in college, I came to believe that the combination of computing power and analytics would empower the trading firms of the future. This was in 1986. And this was the first right place, right time story. But more than fancy analytics were needed to pursue my dreams. What I needed was capital. And the rise of hedge funds in the ’80s and ’90s were my path to my future. Access to a group of forward- thinking investors who believed in the power of the alignment of interest between the money manager and the investor. And this is the second right place, right time story that would come to shape my career. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been at the epicenter of great changes in our financial markets. But when the history books are written, the celebration of busi- ness leaders as innovators often misses the point. Powerful ideas in the absence of execution are worthless. True innovation is about execution, and execution is about teamwork. In its “Think Different” ad campaign, Apple says the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. Chuck Schwab and Joe Ricketts believed they could change the world of finance, and they did. And like Schwab and Ameritrade, Cita- del’s story of innovation hasn’t been about developing something fun in the lab that no one else has ever thought of. It’s been about seeing opportunities and having the conviction to go for them. And most importantly, it’s about having an extraor- dinary team able to execute on great ideas. And as such, I accept tonight’s award not in my honor, but in honor of my team that has stood by me for nearly three decades, a team that time and time again has converted ideas into reality and, in doing so, has both helped our inves- tors reach their goals and dreams and transformed financial markets around the world. Thank you. THE TICKER ROBERT RUBIN Former US Secretary of the Treasury I’m told I’m supposed to say I’m delighted to introduce Tim Geithner, which I am. You have Tim’s résumé, and it speaks for a career of really remarkable accom- plishment and tremendous public service. What I’m going to try to do is lend a little bit of personal color. I first met Tim in 1995, days after I came to the Treasury, at a meeting with Larry Summers, then de facto, later de jure, Dep- uty Secretary. Larry made his presentation, everybody nodded that they agreed and then a very young-looking fellow across the table raised his hand, said he disagreed and went on to explain why. I thought, well, I’m not going to bother to meet this guy because he ain’t going to be around here very long! Then, to my amazement, Larry asked him to explain what he meant. Afterwards, I asked the Treasury veteran what that was all about. And he told me the young fellow’s name was Tim Geithner, that Larry thought he was a superstar and that he was, in fact, a super- star. Tim was rigorously substantive and, in his own polite way, spoke truth to power. I remember once we were in Larry’s office trying to decide whether or not to intervene in the yen. The issue was complex and consequential, and I went to my comfort zone and suggested that we defer to preserve optionality. Tim, www.MoAF.org  |  Winter 2018  |  FINANCIAL HISTORY  7