Rise of the Native Son

OK, lame title, I know. But I have two finals and a term paper due tomorrow, and I wanted to get this quick post in. For those who don't have CNBC on at work, and even more so for those who don't know what CNBC is, today marks what I'd say is a pretty historic day for Indians in the Western business world. Earlier today, Citigroup named Vikram Pandit its new CEO, effective immediately.

Of course, there have been Indian CEO's of American companies before (including Indra Nooyi, who is CEO and ChairWOMAN of another huge American icon, PepsiCo). With few exceptions, however, none of these individuals have been very "public" figures, whether due to their Companies' small sizes, their own personalities, whatever. The reason I think this is historic is because of the public face that bank CEOs have with investors and with Wall Street generally (had there not been even bigger news in the markets today, I would have guaranteed that Pandit's picture would be plastered on the front page of tomorrow's Journal). Because of this, unlike even Nooyi, who runs a company worth over $120 billion, most people even remotely interested in the markets have known who Pandit is for several years, dating back to his tenure at Morgan Stanley.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm rooting for Pandit to succeed (full disclosure: I do not directly own Citi shares). No, I wasn't born in India. Hell, the most successful Indian businessperson I know personally, my dad, was born in Nairobi! But I have to imagine that his success, or lack thereof, will determine how wide doors open for Indian businesspeople in this country, regardless of where they were born. Citi, after all, was at one point the most valuable bank in the country (until a lawyer took over and basically ran it face-first into the ground). It'll be interesting to see what happens, as the Company is an absolute mess right now. Let's just hope the new Chairman ("Sir" Win, obviously) and the rest of the Board gives him time to clean it up. Go Vikram!!!

Ignorant or Uneducated???

As super-conservative Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee continues to gain grounds in national polls of Republican voters, the spotlight on him is unsurprisingly brightening. The latest? This AP story discussing some written Huckabee statements regarding HIV/AIDS back in the early 90s.

My gut reaction to this was "nice knowing you, former potential Republican nominee Mike Huckabeee." But then I read the bulk of the article (something which I fear many will not). And it got me thinking. Were these statements those of an ignorant, gun-toting, gay-bashing Southerner? Or those of someone who was simply uneducated on the topic?

I tried to recall what, if anything, I knew about AIDS back in 1992. Of course, that was a long time ago (sadly, many, many years before I could actually convince a girl to sleep with me such that I had to worry about safe sex). All I can really remember was that, as of 1992, HIV/AIDS was the disease that killed Magic Johnson. Of course, Magic did not die from the virus, and has actually gone on to live a pretty healthy, very successful career post-NBA. I'd have to guess that his biggest health concern these days is to avoid gaining any more weight cuz then even the Big & Tall stores won't have anything for him.

Anyways, I guess my point is this. While at first many people will react the way I did and assume that Huckabee is just a homophobic ingorant biyatch, he's probably not. Before passing judgment (on a candidate I would NEVER vote for, FYI), one should think about all that we've learned about HIV/AIDS over the past 15 years. Now if we could just find a way to isolate the carriers of the other plague known as Republicanism. Actually, I guess that's what the Central and Mountain time zones are for.