William R. Rhodes is president and CEO of William R. Rhodes Global Advisors, LLC. He is also a retired senior vice chairman and senior international officer of Citigroup and Citibank.

Mr. Rhodes gained a reputation for international financial diplomacy in the 1980s as a result of his leadership in helping manage the external-debt crises that involved developing nations and their creditors worldwide. During that period and in the 1990s, he headed the advisory committees of international banks that negotiated debt-restructuring agreements for Argentina, Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. In 1998, when the Republic of Korea experienced liquidity problems, he chaired the international bank group that negotiated the extension of short-term debt of the Korean banking system. In early 1999, at the request of the government of Brazil, he acted as worldwide coordinator to help implement the maintenance of trade and interbank lines by foreign commercial banks to Brazil. He has since served as a trusted advisor to governments, financial officials, and corporations worldwide.

Mr. Rhodes is a director of the Private Export Funding Corporation; a senior advisor to the global management firm Oliver Wyman; chairman emeritus of the U.S.-Korea Business Council; a director of the Korea Society; a member of the Advisory Board of the Museum of American Finance; a senior economic advisor to the Dalian Government in China; a member of the International Policy Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and a member of the board at the Foreign Policy Association. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Group of Thirty, and the Advisory Council of the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce. He is the first vice chairman emeritus of the Institute of International Finance and chairman emeritus of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas. He previously served as chairman of the New York Blood Center, the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade, and the Hong Kong-United States Business Council.

Mr. Rhodes is a governor and life trustee of The New York-Presbyterian Hospital; a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Business Committee and Chairman’s Committee; and chairman emeritus of the board of trustees of the Northfield Mount Hermon School.

He has received decorations and honors from various governments and institutions, including an honorary doctorate in humane letters from his alma mater Brown University, where he established the William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance; Officer and Chevalier of France’s Legion of Honor; decorations from Poland, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Jamaica; and multiple awards from not-for-profit organizations such as the Africa-America Institute, Arab Bankers Association of North America, the America-Israel Friendship League, and Sciences Po Foundation, Pro Mujer, and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boy Scouts Award in recognition of his contributions to international banking and finance.

Mr. Rhodes recently authored the book Banker to the World: Leadership Lessons from the Front Lines of Global Finance. The book is available in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, and a separate edition published by Tata in India and the subcontinent.