Joe J. Plumeri

In November 2015, Plumeri and his wife Susan donated $5 million to New York Law School to support the creation of the Joe Plumeri Center for Social Justice and Economic Opportunity.

Plumeri received compensation of $8.1 million in 2007, $19.9 million in 2008, and $10.9 million in 2009 (consisting of a salary of $1 million, bonus of $1.7 million, restricted stock awards of $7.3 million, and other compensation of $.9 million). Willis extended his contract in January 2010 until July 7, 2013. As of March 2010, Plumeri owned 3.8 million shares of the company, representing 2.3%.

On August 19, 2013, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP announced Plumeri's appointment as Senior Advisor.

His mother, Josephine Plumeri, died on January 20, 2012, at the age of 97.

By 2010, Willis had 17,000 employees in 400 offices located in 120 countries.

In 2009, he struck a deal that led to the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago, the tallest building in North America, being renamed the Willis Tower, as the company rented 140,000 square feet (13,000 m) of its office space. He and Mayor Richard Daley unveiled a sign with the new name in a ceremony in July. Plumeri said: "You can call it anything you want... you can call it the 'Big Willie' for all I care. As a matter of fact, I wish you would."

In 2008, he directed the sale of Willis's London headquarters at 10 Trinity Square, relocating to 51 Lime Street, the fourth-tallest building in the City of London. Locals referred to the new headquarters as "Plumeri's Palace". The building incorporates Plumeri's "no-doors" policy, a policy which extends to his own office.

In 2008, he provided $2 million to create the Plumeri Awards for Faculty Excellence at William & Mary. He also funded the Joseph J. Plumeri Business Scholarship, the Joseph J. Plumeri Endowment Fund for baseball scholarships for the school, and the W&M/Plumeri Pro-Am Golf Tournament.

Speaking of his son Christian, who died in November 2008 at age 39 from drug addiction, he said: "You deal with it, but it's so difficult. I think about it all the time; think about it every day. You always think about what you could have done differently."

By February 2007, he had grown the company at an annual rate of 12% per year. In 2008, Plumeri headed Willis' $2.1 billion acquisition of U.S. rival Hilb, Rogal & Hobbs Co. (HRH). By August 2008, Willis was worth $4.5 billion. In his first eight years at Willis, the company's net worth doubled, its margins rose from 7% to 32%, and its stock price rose from $3-per-share to $32-per-share.

Plumeri was also the commencement speaker at the College of Saint Rose in 2006, Richard Bland College of the College of William and Mary in 2008, and the College of William and Mary in 2011.

In June 2001, he brought the company back to public ownership in an IPO, and had it listed on the New York Stock Exchange. At the time, its stock price was $13.50. Within two years, by May 2, 2003, it was $31.27, an increase of 132%. On February 27, 2004, it was at $38.35.

For 2002, the company's net income was $210 million. In 2003, it rose to $414 million.

In 2001, he became the co-owner of another New Jersey minor league baseball team, the Jersey Shore BlueClaws, the High-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. It is located in Lakewood in Ocean County, on the Jersey Shore.

In December 2001, he opened a family restaurant named "Plumeri" in TriBeCa with his son Jay. In 2010 his son opened a restaurant named "Race Lane" in East Hampton, New York.

Following the integration, he was appointed CEO of Citibank, North America by Citigroup co-Chairmen Weill and John Reed. J. Paul Newsome, an analyst with CIBC Oppenheimer, said: "He's not the spit-and-polish executive many people expected. He's rough on the edges. But Citibank knows the bank as an institution is in trouble—it can't get away anymore with passive selling—and Plumeri has all the passion to throw a glass of cold water on the bank." At this point, Weill and Reed stepped down. As CEO of Citibank N.A., he navigated the unit's earnings from $108 million to $415 million in one year, an increase of nearly 400%. In January 2000, somewhat unexpectedly, Plumeri retired from Citibank.

Plumeri assumed the post of Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Willis on October 15, 2000. He replaced John Reeve, who retired, and became the company's first non-British CEO and first non-insurance industry CEO.

Plumeri's concurrent board responsibilities outside of Willis have included the boards of Telex Communications (from 2000), Commerce Bancorp (from 2003), the Council on Foreign Relations, and the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters. Now he serves on the boards of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Jackie Robinson Foundation, Carnegie Hall, and the Churchill Centre and Museum at the Cabinet War Rooms in London.

Plumeri worked on the amalgamation of Travelers Group and Citicorp after the $70 billion ($113,865,362,000 today) 1999 merger of the two to form Citigroup Inc.

Plumeri co-owns the Trenton Thunder. The team plays at Samuel J. Plumeri Sr. Field, the 6,341-seat stadium he named after his father in 1999.

"Plumeri Park" is the 1,000-seat baseball facility of the William & Mary Tribe baseball team since 1999, constructed in large part on the basis of a donation by Plumeri in the autumn of 1996. He had it named in honor of his father.

Plumeri is the son of Samuel J. Plumeri Sr. (a Trenton city commissioner and local businessman, who died in 1998) and Josephine Plumeri (who died in 2012). His grandparents immigrated to the United States from Villalba, Sicily. He was raised in North Trenton, New Jersey, in a working-class family. Speaking of his father, he said: "He never quit, and he always saw the good in everything. He was a dreamer, and because of my father ... I have an affection for people who are passionate."

While vacationing in Paris, the Plumeris by chance met Henry Kravis whose leveraged buyout firm, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), had purchased the Willis Group in 1998 for $1.4 billion. When Kravis asked what he was doing, Plumeri's wife jokingly said: "Find him a job". Kravis called him two weeks later, and suggested that Plumeri run Willis.

Plumeri is a board member of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University (since 1998), Mount Sinai Medical Center, the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, and Churchill Museum in London. He is a member of William & Mary's governing Board of Visitors, Business School Advisory Board, and Sir Robert Boyle Society, as well as a lifetime member of the President's Council and a trustee emeritus of the William & Mary Endowment Association.

In 1997, Plumeri earned at least $3 million ($5,060,000 today) in compensation. In 1998, Primerica had net income of $398 million (on net sales of $1.65 billion), nearly double its 1994 $209 million net income (on net sales of $1.28 billion). Speaking of his approach in business, Plumeri said:

Plumeri was commissioner of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority from 1997 to 2004.

Plumeri was then made Chairman & CEO of Travelers Group's Primerica Financial Services division (Primerica), a position he held from 1995 to 1999.

Weill abruptly dismissed Plumeri in August 1994. Plumeri noted: "I was so intent on getting the job done, that I eliminated the input of other people. If I'd done better at nurturing relationships, who knows how it would have turned out?" Weill made Plumeri a Vice Chairman of Travelers Group Inc. almost immediately thereafter.

In 1993, Weill bought Shearson back from American Express. He paid $1 billion ($1,876,000,000 today), and merged it into its fellow stockbroker Smith Barney.

Plumeri became the president & managing partner of Shearson Lehman Brothers in 1990.

Soon after starting to work at the brokerage firm, Plumeri dropped out of law school. The small brokerage ultimately became Shearson, and Weill sold it to American Express in 1981 for stock valued at $930 million ($2,772,000,000 today). By 1985, Plumeri was a Senior Executive Vice President and director of national sales and marketing.

Plumeri worked for Citigroup from 1968 to 2000. During that time he held the roles of President and Managing Partner of Shearson Lehman Brothers, President of Smith Barney, Vice Chairman of Travelers, Chairman and CEO of Primerica, and CEO of Citibank, North America. He was appointed Chairman and CEO of Willis in 2000.

In 1968, he was in the Army Reserve for six months at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. After he was released, he enrolled in New York Law School in 1968, but did not finish before leaving although he was given an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the school in 2015.

Plumeri worked at Citigroup Inc. and its predecessors companies from 1968 until 2000, when he was appointed as Chairman and CEO of Willis.

While in law school, one afternoon in 1968 he decided to look for part-time employment, and began knocking on doors in the Wall Street area. Entering 55 Broad Street, he looked at the lobby directory and noticed the name Carter, Berlind & Weill. Assuming (incorrectly) that if a firm had three names or more than it must be a law firm, he applied for a job. He decided to take a position with the firm even after he discovered it was not a law firm but a brokerage house.

Plumeri attended Trenton Catholic High School and Bordentown Military Institute (1962). He then studied at The College of William & Mary, graduating in 1966 with a B.A. in History and Education. While an undergraduate, he played on the William & Mary Tribe football team (on scholarship as a halfback for Lou Holtz) and baseball team (as a second baseman and outfielder). He was also a member of Pi Kappa Alpha.

Joseph J. Plumeri II (born July 7, 1943) is vice chairman of the First Data Board of Directors. He was the chairman and CEO of Willis Group Holdings (Willis), a New York Stock Exchange-listed insurance broker, until July 2013. The company has 17,000 employees in 400 offices, located in 120 countries. As of June 2010, Willis had the third-highest insurance brokerage revenues in the world.

The staid, nearly 200-year-old, tradition-laden British-based company (established in 1828) had just incurred a loss in 1999 of $104 million ($169,000,000 today).