Citibank Taps One Of Its Own To Replace Resigned Castellano

Citibank N.A. has selected a replacement for Joseph Castellano, the vice president of information systems who abruptly resigned last month.

Assuming Castellano's responsibilities as division head of global finance technology development is Bill Harris. Harris was previously responsible for technological development in Citibank's corporate cash management business.

Harris, like Castellano before him, reports to Alan Weber, Citibank executive vice president and head of the financial institutions and transaction services group.

Castellano's resignation came just two weeks after the bank issued a mammoth RFP for a new trading-room system. The system is to support some 425 positions at Citi's new headquarters at 399 Park Avenue in New York. The bank plans to move to 399 Park from its current 55 Water Street address next summer (TST, April 20).

Though Citi has left day-to-day management of the RFP to a consultant -- the only contacts listed on the document are representatives of Walsh-Lowe & Associates Inc., sources say -- finding a quick replacement for Castellano was crucial to the project. Sources say the bank expects to have vendor responses in hand by the end of April, to select a short list by June and to start running demos come summer's end.

In the course of its hasty search, industry sources say that Citicorp considered a number of individuals on both sides of the vendor/user fence. However, insiders appear to have been the order of the day: Among those under consideration, according to one source, is R. Max Gould, chief operating officer of Citicorp-owned Quotron Systems Inc.

Before joining Quotron, Gould was employed by Citibank itself. Sources say he was brought to Quotron to cut costs, among other things.

Castellano, meanwhile, has taken a new position at Nynex Corp., where he will be vice president and chief information officer for Telesector Resources Group, a subsidiary of Nynex's New England Telephone & Telegraph Co. and New York Telephone Co. divisions.

The report chart at Citicorp remains as it was prior to Castellano's resignation -- for now at least. Formerly on Castellano's staff were vice presidents Tom Flanagan, Helga Oser, Jack Bronner, Elvin Riley and Gail Port. In an interview shortly after his resignation, Castellano said he shared the uppermost tier of the technology chart at the bank with William Aimetti -- whom Castellano identified as his opposite number on the networking and communications side.

At Nynex, Castellano will oversee, among other things, Telesector Resources' information services group. The group was responsible for the recently announced deal between Nynex and Dow Jones & Co., in which Dow Jones and Nynex will jointly develop a prototype service to deliver video programming to customers in the financial industry.