Citi names new CEO for PH

Batara Sianturi

MANILA, Philippines–Citigroup has announced the appointment of a homegrown Indonesian banker as chief executive officer for the Philippines and Guam cluster, taking the place of Sanjiv Vohra.
Batara Sianturi was named as citi country officer (CCO) for the Philippines and the Philippines/Guam cluster head, responsible for all businesses across the franchise in these markets. The CCO role is the face of Citi to key stakeholders in the country and across the global Citi network.
The appointment, subject to regulatory approval, will be effective June 1 this year.
For his part, Vohra, who has led Citi Philippines from November 2005, will be moving back to India. “Over the last almost eight years, he has driven record success for Citi’s corporate and consumer banking businesses in the country. During his tenure, the Philippines became home to multiple Citi Centers of Excellence for various business processing activities, which increased the number of Citi employees in the country,” Citi said in a press statement on Tuesday.
At present, Sianturi is Citi’s CCO for Hungary and the cluster head for Hungary and 12 other countries in the Balkan and Baltic Regions in Central Eastern Europe.  He will report to Michael Zink, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) head and Citi country officer at Singapore.
Sianturi joined Citi Indonesia as a management associate in 1988 and has held a number of positions in consumer audit, operations and finance.  His senior appointments include consumer chief finance officer, overseas mortgage head in Australia, branch network and sales director, retail banking director and marketing director for retail banking and credit cards in Australia and Indonesia.  He moved to Hungary in 2005 initially as consumer business manager before taking on the broader role of CCO in 2007 and subsequently the cluster head role in 2008.
Educated in the United States, Batara Sianturi has an MBA, Finance from St John’s University and a Master of Chemical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, as well as Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering and Polymer Science from Case Western Reserve University.