Sarah Deans Citi
The buy side says: “Sarah Deans does a very good job updating investors on key issues.”
Sarah Deans, 38, finishes atop the ranking for a third consecutive year — but this time she claims the honor for Citi, which she joined in July from J.P. Morgan. (Citi, which was unranked last year, most recently ranked No. 1 in 2008, under Kenneth Lee; he moved to Barclays Capital in July 2009.) In July, shortly after starting at her new firm, Deans informed clients that the U.K. coalition government’s emergency budget called for changing the metric on which public sector pension payouts are calculated, from the retail prices index to the consumer prices index; because the CPI tends to be, on average, 70 to 80 basis points lower than the RPI, the move would reduce the reported pension liabilities at BT Group and other major companies, she predicted. In November the telecommunications services provider announced that its pension-related deficit had narrowed by nearly £3 billion ($4.9 billion), to £5.2 billion. Deans “produces research even a nonexpert can understand, without compromising on quality,” marvels one enthusiast.
