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The Passionate Principles of Leadership: Ten Strategies To Ensure Success
A visionary business leader, JOE PLUMERI spent over 30 years at CitiGroup, Inc., working as a top executive at its predecessor companies and heading CitiBank North America. As CEO of Willis Group, a global insurance broker, Mr. Plumeri catapulted the company into an international powerhouse, abandoning old strategies to lead Willis to unprecedented success. With a diverse business career spanning nearly half a century, Joe Plumeri is an authority on how to get businesses not only to survive—but thrive.
Anything Is Possible: How To Unlock Your Potential and Achieve Your Dreams
From his childhood streets in Trenton, NJ to the New York City skyscrapers and global capitals of world commerce, JOE PLUMERI has always been passionate about pushing himself to be better, and bringing out the best in others. In this inspirational speech, Mr. Plumeri offers his personal recipe for growth and success, sharing advice about overcoming obstacles--and getting the best out of your life.
Joe Plumeri transforms the ways organizations think and act
Former CEO of Willis Group as well as the bestselling author of The Power of Being Yourself, JOE PLUMERI is known for his electrifying speeches and talent for transforming the way companies think and operate. Plumeri believes what sets the most successful leaders apart is their ability to harness their own passions, in their own authentic ways. Audiences find not only optimistic relief in Plumeri’s message but also key strategies to cultivate authentic power. He offers simple yet profound guidance on how to stay positive, motivate yourself and others, and achieve success in your life and work. A visionary business leader, Plumeri spent over 30 years at CitiGroup, Inc., working as a top executive at its predecessor companies and heading CitiBank North America. As CEO of Willis Group, a global insurance broker, Plumeri catapulted the company into an international powerhouse, abandoning old strategies to lead Willis to unprecedented success. Sought-out to speak everywhere from Great-West Life to Philips, and included in NPR's list of the "Best Commencement Speeches, Ever," Plumeri leaves audiences enthralled. His rave reviews include: "Joe hit it out of the park! The audience took a real liking to his energy and delivery" (The Power Within).
Joe Plumeri serves as the senior advisor to KKR and vice chairman of the First Data Board of Directors. Plumeri plays a pivotal role in company infrastructure finding strategies and solutions to better serve clients.
Joe's first jobs included digging sewers in Trenton, N.J., working as a waiter, tour guide, high school teacher to an errand boy at Carter, Berlind &Weill. For 30 years following, Joe rose from errand boy to eventually, leading billion dollar businesses within the empire that would eventually be known worldwide as Citigroup. His path took him to become president and managing partner of Shearson Lehman Brothers in 1990 and, eventually, the president of Smith Barney in 1993.
Joe's next big step, in 1995, was as chairman and CEO of Primerica Financial Services where he regularly captivated audiences of tens of thousands of self-employed insurance salespeople, inspiring them to help those in their communities capitalize on the growing stock market by buying term life insurance and investing the difference, thereby bringing the American Dream closer for millions of people.
In 1999, when Travelers Group succeeded in its $70 billion merger with Citicorp, creating Citigroup, Joe helped to lead the integration of the two giant companies and was appointed CEO of Citibank, North America, the mainstay financial brand with 450 retail branches across the United States, boosting the division's earnings by 400%, to $415 million, in just one year.In 1999, Joe led the integration of Travelers Group and Citicorp after $70 billion merger. He went on to serve as CEO of Citibank North America.
After 32 years as an executive at Citigroup Inc, he became CEO and Chairman of Willis Group Holdings in 2000. Along the way, Joe revolutionized both his firm and the insurance industry, leading it toward greater transparency, increased innovation and better client service, exemplified by Willis's now famous "Client Bill of Rights." His most memorable feat may have come in 2009, after orchestrating Willis's $2.1 billion acquisition of rival Hilb Rogal & Hobbs in 2008, when he moved the company's Midwest headquarters into the Sears Tower, culminating that deal with the building's renaming, to Willis Tower, of what was the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere. Today, Chicagoans point to their iconic landmark, the Willis Tower, and remember the day that Joe Plumeri helped to reestablish its preeminence in the American skyline.
Joe Plumeri is now in his latest chapter of affirming his enduring belief, proven many times over, that "Anything is Possible." Called on once again by Henry Kravis and KKR, he has joined his friend of 30 years, Frank Bisignano, the chairman and CEO of First Data Corp., to help create, perhaps, the greatest turnaround in U.S. business history.
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