Public Meeting Regarding Citicorp and Travelers Group
Friday, June 26, 1998
Transcript of Panel Nineteen
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2 MR. LONEY: Thank you very much.
3 I understand from panel 19 scheduled
4 for 9 o'clock we have Robert Sanchez, Carmelo
5 Loran and Truda Cleeves Jewett. Would you come
6 up, please.
7 MR. LONEY: Mr. Sanchez, will you
8 begin with the panel, please?
9 MR. SANCHEZ: I'm Robert Sanchez and
10 I own United Business Forms, we're printers in
11 Long Island City. I'm also vice-chairman of
12 the National Hispanic Business Group.
13 Now, part of our mission at the
14 National Hispanic Business Group is we seek to
15 expand opportunities to our members by
16 fostering a dialogue in economic exchanges with
17 corporate America, about a year ago we reached
18 out to the Travelers Group, and found them
19 very, very accommodating. They met with us.
20 As a matter of fact, they nominated someone
21 from our Hispanic Corporate Achiever Award and
22 then they, most importantly, facilitated a
23 luncheon meeting with an executive from their
24 purchasing department with some of our
25 executive committee members.
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2 So the point of my testimony this
3 morning was that we found the Travelers Group
4 to be on the right page as far as fostering
5 economic development in the Hispanic community.
6 The national Hispanic business group feels all
7 we need is an opportunity to open the door a
8 little bit and we'll do our job and get
9 business in corporate America.
10 That's the basis of my testimony this
11 morning.
12 MR. LONEY: Thank you Mr. Sanchez.
13 Mr. Loran.
14 MS. LORAN: Thank you. Good morning.
15 I represent the Occupation Training
16 Institution. We are a non-profit organization
17 based in the Bronx. We provide vocational and
18 educational training to adults and youth,
19 specifically youths from the Bronx where I
20 live.
21 The reason I'm here today is to
22 really testify in favor of the merger between
23 Travelers group and Citicorp. We've been
24 involved with Citicorp in expanding our
25 operation. The Citicorp services our parent
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2 company, and two years ago became its own
3 entity to the division and the entrepreneurship
4 of the executive director and the board of ESS.
5 We identify Citicorp Bank as one of
6 our bankers to be able to help us expand our
7 program. Due to the fact that we provide
8 vocation training in the auto mechanic field
9 which is a very diverse field, and a very
10 lucrative field for those individuals who have
11 a mechanical aptitude.
12 Citibank through its effort to the
13 Community Revitalization Act came to us and
14 provided us with assistance to assist us in how
15 best to serve our need, and reinforce our
16 philosophy of strengthening the community.
17 As some of our panelists have spoken
18 in the past in terms of revitalizing the
19 community, I think Citibank has a sensitivity
20 that needs to be, I think, recognized here
21 today that they help in strengthening the
22 infrastructure. How can a bank or any other
23 entity provide services if individuals are
24 unemployed?
25 They see that as a first step in
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2 trying to provide help to the community. We
3 provide the vocational training and the job
4 placement. Then the Citibank helps them of
5 course with the banking services of course and
6 maybe they are now available to take out loans.
7 Citibank has been working with me to
8 provide us help with the business plan and
9 other areas. We are in a 24 month process to
10 purchase city land and build a structure
11 multicertification in academic training within
12 the central Bronx, which is the industrial
13 park. Right now we're located in the annex
14 area and we are also expanding part of the
15 operations into the Hub and 129th Street.
16 I know questions were asked of one
17 other panelist. I will say that Citibank has
18 been sensitive to the community needs
19 specifically in the Bronx. We provide services
20 to residents in all five boroughs. I look
21 forward to working with Citibank. I have not
22 worked with Travelers Group, but I know in the
23 marriage between Citigroup and Travelers if
24 Citigroup educates Travelers in some of the
25 needs to the community and be more sensitive to
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2 the need I believe that the merger will help
3 not only these businesses, but also the
4 community. Thank you very much.
5 MR. LONEY: Yes, Ms. Jewett.
6 MS. JEWETT: Thank you. Thank you
7 for asking me to testify today. I am Truda
8 Jewett, the assistant executive director of the
9 Childrens Aid Society here in New York City.
10 Childrens Aid is one of the oldest
11 and largest social service agency in this city.
12 It's been here for 145 years. It serves more
13 than 120,000 children and their families each
14 year with a budget of about $45 million this
15 year.
16 We could not survive without
17 government help, without individual help,
18 without corporate and foundation help. We've
19 been fortunate, I think in that we've had the
20 good fortune to be involved in what is now all
21 the Travelers Group. We've had less, really
22 less involvement with Citicorp, but between
23 Travelers starting with Primerica, Salomon,
24 Smith Barney and Citicorp, I think in the last
25 few years those organizations have contributed
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2 more than $500,000 to Childrens Aid Society.
3 That money had gone specifically for
4 child care and for education. Interesting, all
5 of them have been particularly interested in
6 these two very important issues here in the
7 city.
8 Perhaps as important, if not even
9 more important than the financial support is
10 the leadership that this represents, and by
11 that I mean physically the leadership from
12 Mr. Weil and his wife, Mr. Diamond and his
13 wife, Mr. Denim from Salomon and his wife, and
14 Mr. Coleman and his wife from Smith Barney.
15 Between those individuals, their
16 friends and employees, they have contributed
17 more than $1.5 million in the last two years to
18 the Childrens Aid Society.
19 This leadership by example I think is
20 something that's very important in the
21 community, and while we haven't had the close
22 involvement with Citicorp, I can only hope that
23 that would increase with this merger so that I
24 support it.
25 MR. LONEY: Thank you, Ms. Jewett.
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2 Do we have any questions of this panel?
3 MR. HODGETTS: Mr. Loran, does
4 Citibank have a lending or investment
5 relationship with your organization or with
6 your graduates?
7 MS. LORAN: The parent agency that's
8 referred to currently has their business bank,
9 business account with Citibank, and we haven't
10 reached the next level because of the fact that
11 as I said before, we've just begun the creating
12 of OCI, and we're looking more into eventually
13 in trying to receive more funding.
14 What I hope to do is we are in
15 October of this year starting a program for
16 youth in the Bronx, and to incorporate banking
17 and budgeting, that hopefully the Citibank will
18 help us in terms of that. Thank you.
19 MR. HODGETTS: Thank you.
20 MR. LONEY: Are there any other
21 questions? If not, I will thank the panel for
22 coming.