With a career spanning nearly four decades, Raymond J, McGuire has distinguished himself as a leader in the financial world as well as a philanthropist with a deep commitment to giving back and creating opportunity in the worlds of finance, art and education.
In 2020, Mr. McGuire left his role as Vice Chairman of Citigroup and Chairman of Citi’s Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory business to pursue public service as a candidate for the mayoralty of New York City. While at Citi, Mr. McGuire held a 13-year term as Citi’s Global Head of Corporate and Investment Banking, the longest tenure for this position in the history of Wall Street.
Under his leadership, Citi leveraged its unmatched global network to meet multinational and sovereign clients’ working capital, debt and equity capital raising and strategic Mergers & Acquisitions needs. His role and responsibilities included building, managing and leading a global business with $20+ billion of annual revenue. Mr. McGuire personally advised on transactions across global industries and geographies valued at $750+ billion, including Time Warner/AT&T ($108 billion, the fifth largest transaction in history), Time Warner in its takeover defense ($95 billion), and in its separation of Time Warner Cable ($45.0 billion). He represented Wyeth in its sale to Pfizer ($68 billion); Colgate’s acquisition of Sanex; Conoco Phillips Co.’s acquisition of Burlington Resources ($36.0billion); Koch Industries’ acquisition of Georgia Pacific ($21.0 billion); EDS in its sale to Hewlett Packard ($13.0 billion); SABIC’s acquisition of GE Plastics ($12.0 billion), and UST in its sale to Altria ($12.0 billion).
Prior to joining Citi, Mr. McGuire was the Global Co-Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Morgan Stanley; Managing Director in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.; and one of the original members of Wasserstein Perella & Co., Inc. where he became a Partner/Managing Director in 1991. He started his career in 1984 in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group of The First Boston Corporation.
Mr. McGuire has done extensive board service on both corporate and not-for-profit boards. He joined the Hess Corporation as a member of its Board of Directors in February, 2022, the board of Vornado Realty Trust in March, 2022 and the board of KKR & Co., Inc. in June, 2022. Formerly, he was a Director of the Wyeth Corporation (Nominating & Governance Committee), where he lead the negotiation of Wyeth’s sale/merger with Pfizer.
He has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to the community and to cultural and educational institutions. Presently, he serves as a Board member of numerous boards including: the American Museum of Natural History (Treasurer and Chair of the Committee on Trustees and Governance), the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums (Co-Chair), the Greentree Foundation, the Hotchkiss School (Vice President), the New York City Police Foundation, the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the New York Public Library (Executive Committee), the Studio Museum in Harlem (Chairman), the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art (Executive Committee) and the WNET Group. Mr. McGuire was formerly a member of the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. He has previously served on the boards of the Alex Hillman Family Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Citi Foundation, the De La Salle Academy (Chairman Emeritus), FAPE (Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies), the Harlem School of the Arts, the Harvard Club of New York, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the International Center of Photography (President), the Joseph & Claire Flom Foundation, Lincoln Center, the New Museum, the San Remo Tenants’ Corporation (President) and the Skadden Foundation. He has also served on various Visiting Committees at Harvard University, as well as the Overseers/Directors Nominating Committee. He currently serves on the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors.
Through his dedication to mentoring, Mr. McGuire has not only mentored hundreds of individuals, but he has also served on advisory boards for the Council of Urban Professionals (CUP), Sponsors for Educational Opportunities (SEO) and Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT).
Mr. McGuire has received numerous honors and distinctions including the Theodore Roosevelt Award from the Legal Aid Society, the John C. Whitehead Social Enterprise Award from the Harvard Business School Club of NY, the Public Service Award from Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the Trailblazer Award from the Metropolitan Black Bar Association, the Humanitarian Leadership Award from CUP and the Frederick Douglas Award from the New York Urban League. He was also recognized by New York’s Avenue Magazine as one of New York’s“50 Smartest” and by Crain’s as one of the“Most Connected New Yorkers”. ARTnews includes Mr. McGuire on its list of the world’s“Top 200 Collectors”. He was inducted by Morehouse College as one of the inaugural members of the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Board of Renaissance Leaders. He was also featured in Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the“100 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America” and on the cover of Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the most powerful Blacks on Wall Street.
Mr. McGuire has been honored by New York Needs You, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Studio in a School, Teaching Matters and the National CARES Mentoring Movement. He served as Corporate Chair for the 2016 Howard University Charter Day. Pratt Institute honored him as its inaugural distinguished“Patron of the Arts”. Mr. McGuire has also been honored with Harvard Business School’s African American Student Union’s Professional Achievement Award, has presented at Harvard Law School’s Traphagen Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series and emceed the first Harvard College Black Alumni Weekend.
He received his M.B.A. and J.D. from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School (1984), and an A.B., cum laude, from Harvard College (1979). He also attended the University of Nice, France while on a Rotary Fellowship (1980). He has had legal experience at the law firms of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom as well as Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. He received a L.H.D. from Pratt Institute (2011) and a L.H.D from Dominican College (2017).
Mr. McGuire resides in New York City with his wife, Crystal McCrary McGuire. They have three children.