7/28/2019 Ed Skyler CitiBank Bloomberg

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Article can be found athttp://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130528/TRANSPORTATION/130529892How the financial crisis spawned Citi BikeThe roots of Citigroup's sponsorship of New York's new bike shareprogram grew from the 2008 financial crisis and a Bloomberg official's

call to Ed Skyler, a former deputy mayor.

Citi has made a $41 million commitment to bike share over six years.Published: May 28, 2013

New York City may have the financial crisis to thank for its new bikeshare program.

In late 2008, some feared Citigroup might be headed toward a LehmanBrothers-like demise. But after two federal bailouts, the bank is nowon the tip of every New Yorker's tongue as the long-awaited bike share

program bearing the company's name gets rolling.

It's no coincidence. Since the financial crisis, it has been a toppriority at Citi to fix the bank's image in the consciousness of NewYorkers and to undo any perception that banks are more interested inserving themselves than their clients.

"One of the mandates has been to increase our visibility in New York,the entire U.S. and globallyand to do it creatively," said Ed Skyler,executive vice president for the bank's global public affairs and aformer deputy mayor under Michael Bloomberg. "We have about 20,000

people in New York City, which makes us the second largest privateemployer. We're the largest employer in Queens. If you thought aboutCitigroup a few years ago, you might not have experienced our presencethe way we thought you should for a company as big as we are here. Wehave done a lot to fix that since the crisis."

Citi has made a $41 million commitment to bike share over six years.That's a sliver of the reported $20 million to $25 million annualprice tag for its Citi Field naming rights, but arguably much morecost-effective. With 10,000 logos roaming the streets and on thousandsof logos on fobs in New Yorkers' pockets, Citi is hoping to attractnew customers.

"Hopefully we'll see an uptick in New York City," Mr. Skyler said."Visually [the bikes are] eye-catching. They really pop in the urbanlandscape that tends toward darker, grayish tones. Our consumermarketing team and [program vendor] Alta's NYC Bike Share workedhand-in-glove since signing the deal to make sure it reflected Citi'sbranding."

7/28/2019 Ed Skyler CitiBank Bloomberg

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Mr. Skyler, a former deputy mayor for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, leftthe administration in 2010, but has maintained an open line ofcommunication with City Hall. Mr. Skyler served as the original pointperson for the public-private partnership.

"The Department of Transportation commissioner initially reached outto me," said Mr. Skyler, referring to Janette Sadik-Khan. "Irecommended the program to our consumer marketing team and theyultimately decided to do it. Among other things, we looked at theexperience Barclays had in London [sponsoring bike share], where theyare known as 'Barclays bikes.'"

As for glitches and complaints surrounding the roll-out, Mr.Skylerwho served as the mayor's press secretary in 2005 when the citypassed its initially contentious smoking bansaid he's not worried. "I

think a little bit of controversy isn't a bad thing. It means peopleare talking about it. Time will show it's a successful program."

If it indeed is, Citi figures to have competitors for naming rightscome 2019. "In a sense, it'll be a good proxy for whether it'ssuccessful or not," Mr. Skyler said. "If it's really successful, whichI think it will be, you'll have a competitive field [for namingrights] in six years."