A Brash and Brainy Brat

Something has always separated Citicorp Chairman John Shepard Reed from the crowd. While many of his high-powered banking colleagues must lumber along in English on their travels abroad, he can close a deal in fluent Spanish or Portuguese. A political independent in a Republican-dominated business, he once criticized U.S. policy on Viet Nam during a White House meeting in front of his banking boss and a Cabinet officer. During the Reagan years, according to another account, Reed has driven up to the same prestigious Pennsylvania Avenue address in a humble white Toyota compact. Now the whiz kid once dubbed "the Brat"...

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