So the recent news that the queen is going to award him a knighthood has a special resonance.
“It does say something about one’s personal reputation,” says Maughan, whose father went to work in the local mines at age 12. “It speaks of character and integrity. And it doesn’t hurt.”
First with Warren Buffett, then by himself, Maughan ran Salomon Brothers in the wake of its devastating 1991 Treasury bond scandal. A onetime adviser to the U.K. Treasury, he now lives in New York, where he oversees Citigroup’s M&A business and Internet operating group and Citigroup Japan.
Maughan hasn’t yet been told when the investiture ceremony will take place, but Citi chairman and CEO Sandy Weill has already dubbed him Sir Deryck. Still, Maughan believes that most of his friends will continue to call him Deryck. “It’s easy to make fun of this kind of thing, but I consider myself very fortunate,” he says.
Evidently, Citi has fans at the palace. Also on New Year’s Day, the queen named Maughan’s colleague David Challen, vice chairman of Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, a commander of the British Empire.
