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,
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