William R. Rhodes
Bill Rhodes is president and CEO of William R. Rhodes Global Advisors, LLC and professor-at-large at Brown University. He is also a senior advisor for Citi, having stepped back from full time responsibilities after more than 53 years with the institution. He is a retired senior vice chairman and senior international officer of Citigroup and Citibank.
Mr. Rhodes gained a reputation for international financial diplomacy in the 1980s as a result of his leadership in helping manage the external-debt crises that involved developing nations and their creditors worldwide. During that period and in the 1990s, he headed the advisory committees of international banks that negotiated debt-restructuring agreements for Argentina, Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. In 1997-‘98, when the Republic of Korea experienced liquidity problems, he chaired the international bank group that negotiated the extension of short-term debt of the Korean banking system. In early 1999, at the request of the government of Brazil, he acted as worldwide coordinator to help implement the maintenance of trade and interbank lines by foreign commercial banks to Brazil. He has since served as a trusted advisor to governments, financial officials and corporations worldwide.
Mr. Rhodes is a director of the Private Export Funding Corporation; a senior advisor to the World Economic Forum; a senior advisor to the global management firm Oliver Wyman; vice chairman of the National Committee on U.S. - China Relations; a director of the Korea Society; a director of the U.S.–China Business Council; a member of Korean President Lee’s Council of Global Advisors; a member of the International Advisory Board of the National Bank of Kuwait; a senior advisor to the Dalian Government in China; a member of the Inter-American Development Bank’s Private Sector Advisory Board; a member of the International Policy Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; a member of the Board at the Foreign Policy Association; a trustee of the Asia Society; and a trustee of the Economic Club of New York. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Advisory Council of the Brazilian American Chamber of Commerce, and The Group of Thirty. He is a first vice chairman emeritus of the Institute of International Finance, and chairman emeritus of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas and the U.S.-Korea Business Council. He previously served as chairman of the New York Blood Center, the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade and the U.S.-Hong Kong Business Council.
Mr. Rhodes is a governor and trustee of The New York-Presbyterian Hospital; a member of the Lincoln Center Consolidated Corporate Fund Leadership Committee; a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Business Committee and Chairman's Committee, and chairman emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Northfield Mount Hermon School.
He has received decorations and honors from various governments and institutions, including an honorary doctorate in humane letters from his alma mater Brown University, where he established the William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance; Chevalier and Officer of France's Legion of Honor; decorations from Poland, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Jamaica; and multiple awards from not-for-profit organizations such as the Africa-America Institute, the Arab Bankers Association of North America and the America-Israel Friendship League in recognition of his contributions to international banking and finance.
Mr. Rhodes is the author of BANKER TO THE WORLD: Leadership Lessons from the Front Lines of Global Finance.