Former Citi CEO and legendary Wall Street executive Sandy Weill shocked the financial industry today.
While hosting CNBC's Squawk Box, he called for banks to be broken up — for retail banks to be separated from investment banks.
This is all the more shocking when you know something about Weill's career.
He has been a pillar of Wall Street for the past half century, being involved in some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions in the history of finance.
And the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the legislation that originally separated investment banking from retail banking, can be, in part, credited to him.
Weill was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Cornell University
Sanford "Sandy" Weill was born to two Polish-Jewish immigrants in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn on March 16, 1933.
He went on to graduate from Cornell University. His relationship with Cornell has obviously been a very important part of his life, as he has consistently donated to the University, including to the Weill Cornell Medical College located in Manhattan.
His first smash was building a small brokerage into a powerhouse of the 1960s.
Over the next number of years after graduating from Cornell, Weill started his own company, Cogan, Potoma, and Weill. The company existed as a small research boutique that also conducted investment banking and brokerage services before it began purchasing Wall Street firms left and right.
Through 15 acquisitions that turned the brokerage into a financial powerhouse and eventually merged with Shearson Hamill, a company which had a household name due to its 1960s commercials.
Weill became President of American Express when he sold his brokerage to the company.
Shearson became the second largest company on the securities industry before Weill sold it to American Express for $930 million in 1981. Weill became President of American Express through the sale, which he remained until 1985 when he resigned due to conflicts with the company's corporate structure.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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