Citi to Add Risk Expert to its Board

Four months after embarking on a search for directors with financial expertise, Citigroup is close to announcing that the dean of the Harvard Business School will join its board, sources told The New York Times.

Jay O. Light, an expert in asset and risk management who has led the business school since 2005, is being recruited to fill one of at least three seats expected to be vacated in the coming months.

Citigroup’s directors have been under siege after overseeing more than $40 billion in write-offs and a share price that has fallen more than 66 percent in the last year.

No decision has been made, and spokesmen for Citigroup and Light declined to comment to the NYT.

Light's appointment is viewed as an important step as Vikram S. Pandit, Citigroup’s chief executive, tries to reshape the board and turn around the troubled bank.

The NYT reports it  also could pave the way for other directors to more gracefully leave the board, including C. Michael Armstrong, a longtime director who has been chairman of Citigroup’s risk and audit committee since 2004. Armstrong is expected to step down when the board changes committee heads this summer as part of a normal rotation.