PEOPLE: CRAIG SNYDER: WHAT A LIFE! FROM NAVY TO PEPSI TO CITIBANK’S ‘WE LOVE LAWYERS’

Craig Snyder can make a statement few other bankers or, for that matter, few other professionals can.

“All we do here is think about lawyers. We love lawyers,” says Mr. Snyder, managing director of the legal group with the Citibank Private Bank in New York.

Mr. Snyder, whose promotion was announced in May, oversees Citibank’s private bankers with responsibility for developing relationships with law firms and attorneys in New York. It’s a unique focus in the already narrowly targeted world of private banking, which generally concentrates on individuals with investable assets of $3 million or more.

law firm is the client

Mr. Snyder’s charge differs from what it would be at most private banks because the legal unit deals with a much broader range of customers. With Citibank, the law firm itself becomes the client. The bank then makes its services available to any of the lawyers in a client firm, including the more modestly paid associates.

While about 90% of associates will leave the firm after five years when they don’t make partner, Mr. Snyder says Citibank can still benefit from serving those young lawyers, especially if they move to another firm where Citibank isn’t the private banker.

“We do a lot to build a future relationship if we provide them with their first credit card or their first mortgage,” says Mr. Snyder.

Citi estimates its private banking customers include nearly half of the city’s law firms with 10 or more attorneys and the revenue level the bank is targeting. It’s a hotly contested field, though, with Chase Manhattan Bank’s private bank also claiming dominance.

Citibank’s specialization and market penetration in the legal community lets it help client firms analyze their financial performance compared with peer firms.

“We’re probably more a consulting firm to the legal industry than a transactional institution,” says the 33-year-old Mr. Snyder.

Mr. Snyder replaces Larry Hanson, who was promoted to marketplace manager for the Private Bank. He comes to his new position with a somewhat unusual background. Before joining Citibank in 1995 as a branch manager in Washington, D.C., he was territory director for PepsiCo in the Midwest.

However, his resume fits into brand-conscious Citibank’s desire to draw executives who have experience hawking other famous brand names.

“That’s something I was looking for when bringing Craig into the organization,” says Danillo DiPietro, a vice president with the private bank.

“As we redefine what a bank is, people with Craig’s background will become much more the norm.”

A Gulf War veteran and U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Mr. Snyder left the Navy as a lieutenant in 1992 after serving on a guided missile destroyer and in a special warfare group. He decided to move on when it appeared his career was taking an administrative turn.

“If you had told me when I was in Saudi Arabia that I’d be a banker concerned with lawyers, I couldn’t have made the jump,” he says.

But those who knew him in the service aren’t that surprised with his success in banking.

“When you break down the job, it’s people management and a little salesmanship,” says Greg Hale, an Annapolis classmate who served with him. “He’s got both of those skills.”

Crain News Service