Citi’s chief accounting officer and controller, Johnbull Okpara, is leaving his post to pursue another opportunity, the company said Tuesday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Robert Walsh will become interim CAO at Citi, effective immediately, while the firm searches for a permanent replacement.
Meanwhile, Patrick Scally, a 32-year Citi veteran, will become interim controller, according to the filing.
Walsh has served as controller for Citi’s services business since November 2023, according to the filing. He joined the lender in 1999 and has since held several positions, including SEC reporting analyst, head of accounting policy for cards, controller for Citi’s institutional group in North America, controller of Citi’s global markets and head of corporate and regulatory reporting, the bank said.
Scally was Citi's head of global product control before becoming the markets controller last November, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“During his nearly four years at Citi, Johnbull has overseen critical efforts to strengthen our financial and regulatory reporting, internal controls and accounting policies and has led the standardization of our ledgers and the re-segmentation of our financial reporting,” CFO Mark Mason said in a memo seen by Banking Dive.
“Johnbull will stay at Citi to drive the third quarter earnings process and then will advise as needed through the filing of the 10-Q to ensure a seamless transition,” Mason noted, referring to a quarterly regulatory filing.
Okpara joined Citi in November 2020. He previously served as global head of financial planning and analysis and CFO of infrastructure at Morgan Stanley.
As interim CAO, Walsh will oversee the accounting policy, SEC and financial reporting, valuation control, regulatory and capital reporting, and controller systems and data operations teams, the memo noted.
Meanwhile, Scally, in his interim role, will oversee the business and functions controller teams in addition to the CAO team, which includes balance sheet governance and controller transformation.
Okpara’s departure is one of many high-profile exits Citi has seen this year. Last month, the head of North America for Citi’s private bank, Don Plaus, left the bank after four months, citing personal reasons.
In July, Tyler Dickson, once a contender to lead Citi’s banking unit, joined Blackstone as global head of client relations for its credit and insurance unit. Citi hired Viswas Raghavan from JPMorgan Chase to lead banking and oversee Citi’s investment, corporate and commercial banking businesses.
Titi Cole, Citi’s head of legacy franchises, disclosed her plans to leave the bank in June. Cole, who joined Citi in 2020, was in charge of implementing the companywide reorganization that began in September 2023 to eliminate five layers of leadership and consolidate overlapping roles. She also oversaw Citi’s effort to retreat from 14 foreign markets since September 2022.
Cole left the Wall Street giant to become executive director of a nonprofit focused on women and healthcare, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Mike Whitaker, the bank’s head of operations and technology, also left the bank earlier this year, according to a memo shared internally. Tim Ryan, formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers’s U.S. senior partner, was hired by Citi as head of technology and business enablement. The latter half of that title included Cole’s legacy franchises.
Cole and Whitaker left Citi less than two months after the company “concluded the major actions” of its reorganization, having let go of 7,000 employees by the end of March. The lender has estimated it will cut 20,000 jobs by 2026.
