Citi says its fired JPMorgan MD was just too "dogmatic" and inexperienced

Why did Citi let go of Kathleen Martin in 2023? Citi says it fired her because she couldn't take feedback, couldn't build relationships, because she wasn't sufficiently innovative, didn't have enough experience for the role she was going for, and because she was "dogmatic."

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Martin herself says she was let go because her boss, Citi COO Anand "Selva" Selvakesari punished her refusal to conceal the sorry state of Citi's data governance. 

Citi absolutely disagrees with what it says are Martin's "meritless accusations" against Selva. In a newly filed and comprehensive refutation of Martin's legal complaint against Citi, the bank says Martin was a long term underperformer and that it began discussing a development plan for her in early May 2023. Citi says this development plan was under consideration before Martin says she first engaged in a "protected activity" [whistleblowing].

In Citi's version of events, Martin had numerous personal failings. The bank says she was failing to live up to expectations as its interim data transformation chair. She, "lacked the ability to partner effectively with senior executives at Citi." Martin, "was not viewed as a leader by the teams responsible for Data Transformation." She didn't have, "a vision for driving change and standardizing process across Citi." 

If this isn't damning enough, when Citi's board and executive management team initially interviewed Martin for the role of permanent data transformation chair in 2022, the bank says she was also found to have a "dogmatic nature," to be deficient in innovation, and to suffer from a, "lack of experience driving the execution of complex change across Citi." For this reason, the bank says she was only made interim chair. It was hoped she would grow into the permanent role. She didn't; the bank says she couldn't assimilate feedback. 

The case hinges on whether Martin was deficient (says Citi), or whether Selva was concealing Citi's own deficiencies (says Martin). 

Selvakesari became Martin's boss around March 27th 2023. By May 2nd, Citi claims he had the measure of Martin's many alleged failings. Selva began discussing a development plan for Martin behind the scenes, but Citi says he also did his utmost to help and mentor her. He set up one to one meetings; he arranged a working group with stakeholders; he tried to persuade Martin to come into the office more frequently to meet her colleagues.

Citi isn't commenting on its new filing. However, it's worth noting that Martin wasn't exactly junior when she arrived at the US bank in November 2021. She previously spent 11 years at Morgan Stanley, nearly five years at JPMorgan and nearly three years at GE Capital. She'd been a managing director in financial services firms since 2012. At JPMorgan, she was global technology chief of staff. 

For her part, Martin claims that, "almost as soon as he was promoted, Selva began to urge Martin to make false reports to the Board." Martin's lawyer, Valid Licul, said Citi's written review of Martin in January, where she was rated as “exemplary” and “exceeds expectations,”  and praised for her leadership skills is at odds with Citi's insistence that she was an underperformer all along. Months before Selva allegedly discussed the development plan, Citi CEO Jane Fraser herself said Martin had "gravitas" and praised her ability to build “strong relationships” within the bank. 

Licul said he and Martin welcome Citi's response. - "We are pleased the Citi has acknowledged that Ms. Martin’s claims have legal merit and has abandoned its baseless effort to seek dismissal.  As the evidence will make clear, Ms. Martin was an excellent employee who was praised by her peers and even Citi’s CEO Jane Fraser.  We look forward to questioning both Ms. Fraser and Anand Selva under oath to show that Ms. Martin was fired because she complained about illegal activity."

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