I’ve had the pleasure to work with Michael Bettigole during my years at Citi. Michael was assigned to build a team responsible for the Joint venture between the Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley brokerage firms, to create Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MSSB) the largest wealth management business in the world currently known as Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. The project lasted 3 years and was a huge success mainly due to Michael’s guidance, dedication and persistence to ensure all angles of the merger were well represented. Michael took the leadership from the beginning with limited resources and worked extremely hard to learn Citi’s bureaucracies, as he met with the various team within IT to educate them and persuade them of the importance of this project. I can honestly say that Michael is a great role model, his leadership and influence skills are unique. Michael’s Program manager’s expertise are amazing and most of all his personal integrity and discipline to stay on course are impeccable. I cannot say enough about Michael’s approach to get the job done. He is the complete package and any company will be lucky to have him as one of their directors. Michael is also a devoted family man and understand the intricacies of work and family responsibilities, it is incredible how he can juggle and distinguish the two without compromising one of or the other. I will encourage you to read his latest publication “A Pocket Guide for Project Managers”, it is a reference guide for anyone who is involved in Project Management.

When Michael took over as the global head of Service Delivery for the Institutional Clients Group he developed a vision to assist business partners with the growth of their charter by delivering innovative technology solutions, operational stability, financial transparency and risk management. Michael recognized each business had its unique customers & business objectives as well as their unique technology drivers, but that all business lines shared common goals. Michael’s approach was to create a functional structure that was designed to address the infrastructure needs of the specific business lines and Citi’s demand to leverage economies of scale across the firm. Michael remained accountable for the delivery of infrastructure services while he promoted best practices and innovative solutions. Michael is a leader who takes ownership. His cross functional expertise in technology, finance and business make him well positioned to grow and lead teams and promote empowerment.

Michael is a consummate professional. Michael brought structure to several programs at JPMorgan Chase including the Trading Floor migration effort in Chicago as well as the Desktop standardization effort for the Investment Bank. I enjoyed working with Mike, as he always kept the most complex projects on track.

Michael was in my direct employment from September 2001 until April 2003 working to complete the rollout of Active Directory and Windows 2000 Server upgrade to the complete global organization of Deutsche Bank. During this time, after his professional and successful progress on these projects, he was utilized on several other project such as server consolidation and lifecycle projects.
Mr. Bettigole’s work initial on the project was demanding due to the diverse nature of the bank and the individual, sometimes completely segregated nature of the bank. Part of his role was to bring these different departments together to ensure a complete and uniform deployment across the bank. Michael’s excellent communication and management skills were pivotal to this task, making sure issues were not repeated across different geographies and different teams were properly educated.
In the frantic days after the tragedy of September 11th in New York Michael kept his focus and assisted in the rebuilding efforts for the bank as well as keeping his current projects on track. Working with the different teams on this approach the team under his guidance was able to use the rebuilding efforts to accelerate deployment, saving both expense and valuable time. Situations like this come along and test our reactions under extreme pressures. This included fiscal, professional and emotional demands and Michael not only performed well but excelled and delivered to exceed everyone’s expectations.
In the 18 months that Michael worked for me he showed that he was professional, resourceful and above all can be depended above to deliver on any task in any circumstance. He will be and is an asset to any organization that he is a part of.

I can honestly say that during my 8+ years of professional IT consulting experience, I have not encountered a harder working than Michael --- however, his work ethic is not his best professional quality. Michael Bettigole is a true leader. His business, management and motivational skills can be used as a barometer to measure others. As an employee, I can personally attest to his leadership abilities.

Michael possesses a level of professional integrity that is unrivaled. In all my direct experiences, he has treated customers, clients, employers and employees with the utmost level of equity.
Michael has been an invaluable mentor in my professional development --- always making time to talk to me in spite of his hectic schedule. I would highly recommend Michael for any leadership role, not just in the IT industry.

Michael is the most sound-minded, detail-oriented technology professional I have had the privilege to work with. His program and project management skills, his ability to communicate at all levels and his grasp of technology make him an incredibly invaluable resource. I would highly recommend Michael for any role he seeks or is offered him.