Tag: News

• Jeffrey Epstein's estate asserted attorney-client privilege for 277 emails with Kathryn Ruemmler.
• A court document says Ruemmler communicated with Epstein about lawsuits involving Epstein's victims.
• The estate says it shouldn't have to turn over the emails in a lawsuit.

Kathryn Ruemmler, the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs, came under a microscope last month after a cache of emails showed a deeper relationship between her and the now-dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein than previously known.

Those emails aren't the entirety of the communications between her and Epstein.

Epstein's estate is keeping secret 277 additional emails between him and Ruemmler, saying they are protected by attorney-client confidentiality. Many of those emails contain discussions of lawsuits by women who accused Epstein of sexual assault, according to a court filing made public this week.

The document, a 500-page list of emails the estate claims are privileged, indicates that Ruemmler gave Epstein legal advice or otherwise acted as his attorney.

At the time, Ruemmler was a co-chair of the white-collar defense and investigations practice at the Big Law firm Latham & Watkins, which previously said Epstein wasn't a client of the firm. Ruemmler hasn't publicly said whether she worked as an attorney for Epstein in an individual capacity.

Ruemmler — who now serves as Goldman Sachs' chief legal officer and general counsel — previously said she regrets her association with Epstein. A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs said Ruemmler and Epstein had a "professional relationship."

Ruemmler, through a Goldman Sachs spokesperson, declined to comment for this story.

A battle between Epstein victims and his estate executors

The emails between Epstein and Ruemmler listed in the court document, known as a privilege log, span from October 2014 until June 2019, shortly before Epstein was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges. They are distinct from the emails made public in November by the House Oversight Committee, which were obtained from the Epstein estate through a congressional subpoena.

The emails released in November show Ruemmler seeking career and real estate advice from Epstein, Epstein introducing her to his world of powerful contacts, and the two griping about Donald Trump's first term.

Before joining Goldman Sachs, Ruemmler was considered a legal star within the Democratic Party. She served as the top White House lawyer during President Barack Obama's administration and was considered a possible pick for Supreme Court justice or US attorney general.

A number of the emails released by the House committee — as well as those listed in the privilege log — show that Ruemmler was looped into email discussions with other attorneys whom Epstein had personally hired, including Darren Indyke, Alan Dershowitz, Ken Starr, Martin Weinberg, and Roy Black. A small handful of Ruemmler's emails to Epstein in the Oversight committee's tranche were also redacted for what was described as "privilege."

Epstein — a financier who counted ex-Apollo CEO Leon Black, ex-Barclays CEO Jes Staley, Prince Andrew, Trump, and Bill Clinton among his acquaintances — killed himself in jail in August of 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges related to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution as part of what was a widely criticized deal with Florida prosecutors.

The privilege log was filed in a case brought by several Epstein accusers against his estate's executors, Indyke and Richard Kahn, alleging they facilitated Epstein's sex-trafficking operation while respectively serving as his longtime personal lawyer and accountant. Indyke and Kahn have denied wrongdoing. Daniel Weiner, an attorney representing Indyke and Kahn, declined to comment on the privilege log but said the accusations against his clients are meritless.

"Messrs. Indyke and Kahn reject as categorially false any suggestion that they knowingly facilitated or assisted Mr. Epstein in the sexual abuse or trafficking of women, or that they were aware of that abuse during the time they provided professional services to Mr. Epstein," Weiner told Business Insider.

The 513-page document was initially filed to the court docket in September, under seal. Public versions of it, with redactions for victim information, were filed on Monday and Tuesday,

The log offers brief descriptions of each email for which the Epstein estate executors are asserting attorney-client confidentiality — arguing it shouldn't have to turn the emails over to opposing lawyers — without disclosing each message's contents.

Sigrid McCawley, an attorney representing the Epstein accusers in the lawsuit, said the estate ought to disclose many of the emails. She declined to comment on Ruemmler's presence in the log.

"Years after Epstein's death when his privilege protection should no longer matter, Epstein's executors Indyke and Kahn are making overbroad privilege assertions and refusing to produce critical information that would uncover the inner workings of his decades-long sex trafficking operation," McCawley told Business Insider.

Epstein named Ruemmler as a backup executor to his estate in a January 2019 draft of his will, according to a copy released by the House Oversight Committee earlier this year. The final edition of the will, completed shortly before his death, replaced her with Boris Nikolic, a former Bill Gates advisor. Indyke and Kahn, Epstein's first choice, ultimately became co-executors of the estate.

The privilege log's descriptions of the emails indicate that Ruemmler worked on a range of Epstein's legal problems, including numerous civil lawsuits from women who accused him of sexual abuse, as well as responding to "criminal complaints against Epstein." None of the emails are described as "estate planning" — a designation used in the log for some of the emails between Epstein and Indyke.

"Attorney client communication regarding strategy of defense of legal claims against Jeffrey Epstein," reads the description for one April 2019 email.

According to the document, Ruemmler and Epstein also communicated about a lawsuit from accusers that sought to undo his Florida plea deal, and about a long-running lawsuit that accuser Virginia Giuffre filed against his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. (Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of trafficking girls to Epstein and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year.)

Other descriptions for the emails are more vague. One, from October 2014, is described as "Attorney client communication providing information at legal request regarding sexual assault claims against Jeffrey Epstein."

The email has the subject line "CONFIDENTIAL – JE."

• MrBeast confirmed he's launching a financial services platform and a phone company, Beast Mobile.
• His holding company, Beast Industries, is expanding beyond YouTube with new businesses and hires.
• The company generated over $400 million in revenue last year and is looking to control costs.

MrBeast is looking to launch a financial services platform, the CEO of the top YouTuber's company said Wednesday at The New York Times' DealBook Summit.

The CEO's comments confirmed earlier reporting by Business Insider that Beast Industries was laying the groundwork to expand into financial services and mobile phones.

"We're also launching a phone company, Beast Mobile, and a financial services platform in there, wrapped in financial literacy and access to the world's information, in making sure we're doing good while doing well," Beast Industries CEO Jeffrey Housenbold said.

A company application filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office on October 13 listed plans for a "mobile app and online services for a range of banking, financial advisory, crypto exchange, and other services." It would exist under the "MrBeast Financial" brand.

The trademark application aligned with a 2025 fundraising pitch deck that laid out plans to expand into fintech. That deck, which was viewed by Business Insider, described customized offerings that would target MrBeast's audience, supported by financial literacy content. The deck listed nine potential offerings, including student loans, insurance, and credit insights. It said the company would launch by partnering with a fintech company to leverage its existing infrastructure "while avoiding regulatory, credit risk, and capital requirement."

Housenbold, who became CEO in September 2024, also said at the summit that the company was building a marketplace to match creators with Fortune 1,000 marketers who want to access the creator economy.

Housenbold joined MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, onstage at the summit. During a wide-ranging interview, Donaldson spoke about how he's trying to focus on improving his videos in the coming year and how media fragmentation has made it more difficult for YouTube channels looking to grow today.

Donaldson is the No. 1 creator on YouTube, with over 400 million subscribers. He has expanded beyond the platform, with an Amazon show "Beast Games," a chocolate bar company called Feastables, an analytics firm called Viewstats, and other ventures.

Beast Industries took in over $400 million in revenue last year, according to investor materials viewed by Business Insider. The company lost money last year, mainly because of high costs in its media business.

The company has recently been hiring new executives with a focus on sponsorships and scripted content. It has also been on a cost-cutting push as it looks to reduce media-related losses.

• GM has hired a former Tesla exec as it brings back staff from its failed robotaxi startup Cruise.
• Ronalee Mann will report directly to GM's chief product officer, according to an internal message seen by BI.
• Mann will focus on "removing unnecessary friction" from GM's processes, the message said.

GM is turning to former employees from its failed robotaxi startup Cruise as it embarks on a new self-driving vehicle push.

The Detroit auto giant has hired Ronalee Mann, a former Cruise and Tesla executive, to report to Sterling Anderson, GM's chief product officer, Business Insider has learned.

Mann, who previously worked as a strategy and operations manager at Cruise, recently joined GM as head of product operations, according to an internal Slack message seen by Business Insider.

Mann left Cruise in April 2024 and also previously worked as a director of strategic programs at Tesla. She will focus on "streamlining" GM's operations and "removing unnecessary friction" from its "systems, tools, and processes," Anderson wrote in the Slack announcement.

Anderson, who has previously worked for Tesla as its Autopilot chief, added that Rashed Haq, another former Cruise executive, would join GM as the company's new VP of autonomy.

In his Slack message, Anderson praised Haq's work at Cruise, adding that he would "keep us focused on execution and progressing toward safe autonomy." Haq announced his new role on LinkedIn last week. Mann's move has not previously been made public.

A spokesperson for GM declined to comment. Mann did not immediately respond to a Business Insider request for comment.

GM's self-driving shake-up

Anderson has shaken up GM's software divisions since arriving at the century-old automaker in May. Bloomberg reported in August that Anderson, who also cofounded the self-driving startup Aurora, told employees he would seek to rehire some former Cruise employees to help build a new autonomous vehicle platform for personal use.

GM shut down Cruise last December after investing more than $10 billion in the robotaxi startup since 2016.

Cruise got the green light to operate an autonomous robotaxi service in San Francisco alongside Waymo, but was banned from operating in California and had to recall its entire fleet after one of its robotaxis seriously injured a pedestrian.

GM's software division has seen some significant executive turnover in recent months. The company's senior VP of software and services engineering and head of AI have both left since October, and CNBC reported last week that senior vice president Baris Cetinok would also depart this month.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at tcarter@businessinsider.com or Signal at tcarter.41. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• The White House has celebrated Christmas since the administration of John Adams in 1800.
• First ladies traditionally oversee decorating the White House for Christmas.
• Melania Trump's White House Christmas decorations this year are themed "Home Is Where The Heart Is."

December means homes across America are decking the halls, and the White House is no exception.

Ever since President John Adams and first lady Abigail Adams hosted the first White House Christmas party in 1800, first families have partaken in festive holiday traditions while in office.

First ladies have traditionally chosen a theme for the White House Christmas decorations and overseen the planning process, a practice that began with Jacqueline Kennedy.

This year, first lady Melania Trump decorated the White House around the theme "Home Is Where The Heart Is" in a scaled-back display following the demolition of the East Wing in October.

Take a look at how the occupants of the White House have celebrated Christmas through the years.

• Former Danity Kane member Aubrey O'Day spoke about Diddy in Netflix's "Sean Combs: The Reckoning."
• O'Day discusses receiving explicit messages from Diddy and an eyewitness account of an assault.
• Director Alexandria Stapleton told BI it was important to include O'Day's "complicated" feelings in the doc.

Netflix's Diddy docuseries "Sean Combs: The Reckoning" features many shocking revelations, but one of the most emotional ones comes from singer Aubrey O'Day.

In the doc, O'Day describes receiving sexually explicit messages from the disgraced music mogul and reads an affidavit of an eyewitness account of her being sexually assaulted by Diddy and another man while she looked "very inebriated."

"Does this mean I was raped?" O'Day says in the docuseries. "I don't even know if I was raped, and I don't want to know."

The four-part docuseries directed by Alexandria Stapleton chronicles the rise and fall of Combs, also known as Diddy, as he goes from hip-hop mogul and billionaire business owner to the subject of a federal prosecution and over 60 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse.

Combs, who pleaded not guilty, was ultimately convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and is serving a 50-month prison sentence. He was acquitted of the most serious charges, including racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking by force or fraud, and is set to be released in May 2028. The allegations related to O'Day were not part of the criminal trial; Combs has denied all wrongdoing in the civil cases.

Combs' spokesperson Juda Engelmayer told Business Insider the Netflix docuseries is "a shameful hit piece," pointing in particular to the fact that it counts Diddy's rap rival Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson among its executive producers.

Netflix disagreed with the characterization. "The claims being made about 'Sean Combs: The Reckoning' are false," a Netflix spokesperson told Business Insider. "This is not a hit piece or an act of retribution."

The Diddy doc director says O'Day's story shows 'the gray area' of the Combs saga

O'Day, a former member of the girl group Danity Kane, which was formed by Combs for the 2005 MTV series "Making the Band," is first seen in the docuseries reading an email Combs sent her in 2008, the year she was fired from the group.

In it, he says, "I don't wanna just fuck you. I want to turn you out." He ends the email by saying he's going to finish masturbating while watching porn and thinking of her.

Later in the docuseries, O'Day reads an affidavit from one of the civil lawsuits of an alleged Combs victim. It states that this woman witnessed O'Day being sexually assaulted by Combs and another man in 2005.

While opening doors looking for the restroom, the woman said she opened one door to find Combs and the other man in sexual acts with O'Day, who was "sprawled out on a leather couch, looking very inebriated." The woman wrote in the affidavit that she is "100% certain" that the person was O'Day.

O'Day says in the docuseries that she has no memory of this and sought out the eyewitness to speak to her.

"Even after I told her I didn't have a recollection of this, I said, 'Could she be making a mistake?' I asked in every way I possibly could think of, and she was certain," O'Day says in the doc.

O'Day adds that she hadn't spoken out about the incident previously out of fear that Combs and his team would discredit the woman who wrote the affidavit.

"You realize the burden that that puts on my soul for the past year, which is if I expose one victim who's got a civil lawsuit, that gives Diddy and his legal team credit to take down everybody else as potential liars," O'Day said. "It goes right back on my shoulders, just like that."

Stapleton, the director, told Business Insider that O'Day's revelations in the docuseries spotlight "the gray area" in the Combs legal saga.

"Her stories are really very, very complicated," she said. "It took a lot of conversations for her to feel like, 'I want to be public about this.'"

"It was never about not sharing it; it was more potentially, 'How do I present to the world that this isn't a binary feeling that I have? That I'm not going to sit here and say yes, this is absolutely true when I don't know if it's true, and also be like this is total BS when part of me feels, what if it is true?'" Stapleton said. "Aubrey, in real time, was trying to figure out."

O'Day did not respond to a request for comment.

"Sean Combs: The Reckoning" is streaming now on Netflix.

• RetrievAir CEO Benton Miller secured funding on "Shark Tank" for his new pet airline.
• The model allows large dogs to fly in the cabin with their owners, instead of an airline underbelly.
• Miller wants RetrievAir to be accessible to the everyday pet owner. Fares average $775 per seat.

Traveling with large dogs is a nightmare. Airline restrictions force heavier dogs into the often unsafe cargo hold, and only the uberrich can afford to ferry their furbabies on a private jet.

Frustrated by how hard it was to fly with his own Labradors, Maple and Willow — and often having to leave them behind — entrepreneur Benton Miller founded RetrievAir, a pet airline that lets oversized dogs (or any-sized dog or cat) ride in the cabin alongside their owners.

In an interview with Business Insider, Miller said the pet-air-travel sector represents a $5.5 billion US market with plenty of room for more players. RetrievAir fares average $775 per seat.

Miller recently turned to ABC's "Shark Tank" reality show for funding and secured $776,000 from guest Shark and Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian in exchange for a 15% stake — a nod to Ohanian's "Seven Seven Six" venture fund. Ohanian has a 100-pound dog named Adora.

Miller said Ohanian "understands burn" because of his tech background and "knows how to scale to a billion-dollar company." RetrievAir, which launched in May, secured over $500,000 in sales within weeks of opening bookings.

Some veteran Sharks, including Kevin O'Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, were skeptical of RetrievAir's $80,000-a-week operating costs. But Miller said sales have since picked up, more cities have been added, and some routes — like New York to Florida — are even selling out.

RetrievAir is not your typical flight experience: Customers book flights online, but instead of navigating a crowded terminal, flyers and their pets meet at a small private airport about 45 minutes before takeoff. Security is faster and tailored to animals.

The pets don't have to be caged and stuffed under the seat in front of you, and Miller said the chartered 30-seater Embraer E135 jet was modified from a 50-seater — giving each seat ample room for humans and animals to spread out.

Dogs over 40 pounds must sit in a paid, assigned seat next to their owner. Lighter pets can sit on their owner's lap or at their feet, and each seat has a leash to secure the animal.

And there's a flight attendant — trained in basic pet behavior — to keep everyone safe, watered, and full of treats.

Miller said the white noise from the engines relaxes most dogs, and they commonly sleep during the flight. They recommend owners of more anxious dogs bring a familiar toy or blanket to help comfort them.

Dogs must have their Rabies vaccine to fly. Luggage, snacks, and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are included for human passengers.

The plane makes a pit stop on the ground every two hours so the animals can use the bathroom (Miller said pet accidents are rare) and the jet can be cleaned. A flight from New York to Denver, for example, would stop in Chicago.

It's less convenient than a nonstop, but it serves two purposes: It protects the health and comfort of the animals, and it allows RetrievAir to sell the trip as one long, single itinerary or split it into individual legs to capture more potential customers.

Pet-focused public charter carriers aren't new. Companies like BarkAir and K9 Jets already schedule shared flights for humans and their pets. Miller said Ohanian's involvement — paired with RetrievAir's efficiency-focused model — has helped put the company on a stronger footing.

"We've had profitable days, profitable weeks," he said. However, he added that their load factor, or the percentage of seats sold, still does not consistently reach the 50% level needed across all routes to reliably generate revenue.

Still, he said he's focused on keeping the service accessible to everyday pet owners by offering lower fares and opening new routes, while maintaining the semi-private jet experience that makes the model work.

Fares range from $300 to over $3,000 per seat

Miller said the average fare is around $775 one-way per seat.

Some shorter upcoming trips, like New York to Washington, DC, in February 2026, are priced as low as $300. He said the lower DC price is possible because the plane flies into a smaller, less expensive airport about 30 miles from the city.

This could be a pain for travelers, but Miller said the location saves money. He added that he prefers these out-of-the-way airports because they're also less congested and cover broader areas.

"Waukegan National Airport in Illinois is 45 minutes north of Chicago, but it's also 45 minutes from Milwaukee," Miller said, adding that smaller airports also reduce the risk of air-traffic delays.

Some RetrievAir trips are more expensive, such as the New York to Los Angeles route, which costs a little over $3,000 one-way per seat in February, or around $6,000 if the dog is over 40 pounds and requires its own seat.

That compares with the roughly $6,700 one-way ticket on BarkAir or K9 Jets on the same route for one seat. The two competitors charter Bombardier and Gulfstream jets that are half the capacity or smaller than the Embraer jet that RetrievAir uses.

RetrievAir flies to six US destinations and plans to add six more in 2026. Unlike both BarkAir and K9Jets, RetrievAir does not fly internationally, but plans to do so in the future. Miller said Seattle is among its highest-requested destinations.

"There are more pets than kids in the city," he said. "Seattle attracts Canadians, especially in the Vancouver area, who may have a vacation home in Arizona or California and need our service."

Specific boarding and seating strategies

RetrievAir's Embraer jet is operated by the third-party carrier RVR Aviation. Miller's team handles scheduling and bookings, while RVR manages the aircraft, maintenance, and crew.

The plane has three seats per row: a single seat on one side of the aisle (seat A) and two seats on the other (seats B and C). Miller said dogs up to 40 pounds can share their owner's seat space and are placed in the A seats by the window.

Bigger dogs, however, need their own seat and are placed in B and C with their owner — with the pup riding in the window seat and away from where they could more easily sniff their neighbor.

Miller said there are precautions to ensure that aggressive or reactive dogs are kept away from other pets, like boarding back to front to minimize interactions. Pets and their owners are denied boarding if the crew anticipates an issue.

"There's a bit of an honor system when booking, that's when we ask for the temperament of the pup," Miller said. "We will talk with the owner if the pet is not friendly, but if we think the pup may be too aggressive, we will ask them not to fly and refund their ticket."

• Gilded Age tycoons built ornate mansions on New York's Fifth Avenue and in Newport, Rhode Island.
• Some of today's wealthiest people have opted for more discreet or modest homes.
• Today's billionaires live in diverse locations across the US, like the Bay Area, Miami, and Seattle.

A century ago, the wealthiest people in America often lived in ornate residences reminiscent of European royal palaces.

Today, some of the richest citizens are more discreet about their wealth, opting for low-key mountain homes, secure bunkers, or even prefabricated houses. Others, meanwhile, have spent big on tropical getaways and luxurious beachfront estates.

While lavish mansions are still built by wealthy Americans, today's real estate trends and status symbols differ from those of 120 years ago.

See how America's wealthiest have changed their residences as they've moved from Fifth Avenue to Silicon Valley.

If you're still looking for best-in-class or best-of-breed when it comes to your enterprise management systems, it might be time to raise your expectations.

According to Stephan de Barse, president of the global Business Suite for SAP, a new gold standard has emerged — a superlative he calls "best of suite."

In de Barse's view, the competitive arena for enterprise management now exists within an integrated framework of AI, data, and core applications. That elevates it from a narrower proving ground, where being a "best of breed" provider checks only one or two of those boxes.

And while being "best of suite" isn't all about AI, the rapid acceleration of AI-centered workflows meant that SAP needed to think differently about the role of AI in enterprise management. This outcome — a clear path and proximity for AI to easily navigate between divisions and functions — is one of the ways the SAP Business Suite lives up to the new designation.

"Many companies treat AI like a separate layer somewhere in the technology stack," said de Barse. "That way, it's disconnected from your end-to-end business processes and disconnected from your data strategy. The moment AI doesn't make it back to the end-to-end business-process context it's very, very difficult to drive value."

AI with suite-wide sweep

According to McKinsey's on-going tracking of enterprise AI from the C-Suite perspective — captured in regular releases of its State of AI reports — the percentage of organizations that report using AI in three or more divisions more than doubled between 2021 and 2025. Use of AI in four or more company divisions tripled across that time period. Companies using AI across five or more divisions — while starting smaller at 4% of those surveyed in 2021 — posted quadruple growth, forecasting near enterprise-wide ubiquity for AI use.

This trajectory toward AI native enterprises is significant. Where the AI ROI conversation was once centered around generalized productivity powered by LLMs, de Barse has watched it reach hard improvements in both the P&L (e.g. improvement of topline revenue) and the Balance Sheet (e.g. improvement of working capital).

He cited the example of an AI agent on the commercial side of an enterprise forecasting deals likely to close. This would send a signal to manufacturing to increase capacity and procurement to line up raw materials.

"If you think about the entire value chain, from sourcing components to getting a product in the hands of customers, that has to be orchestrated by a series of agents that can help organizations reach better decisions and improve business results," de Barse said. "Customers want to work with us to get there, because they understand this must be across business processes."

Best in suite meets best in orchestration

SAP's own proprietary AI interface is known as Joule, which de Barse described as a "superorchestrator" — a single, accessible entry point to all business applications that, in aggregate, determine how an enterprise runs and employees work, as well as the customer experience.

With Joule, "you ask questions, but you also give instructions," de Barse said. "You don't have to log into five different applications to do something — it's all being orchestrated by Joule. So the way we think about interacting with software becomes different."

For manufacturers, that can mean an easy conversational prompt to forecast potential supply-chain disruptions and arrive at a solve. In the finance context, it means instant insight into the cash conversion cycle relative to working capital.

"At the enterprise level, this is happening at an unprecedented pace," he said.

In de Barse's view, these capabilities also call for cultural shifts within organizations — leaning away from optimizing current processes to rethinking how entire functions should be done, so that what becomes automated and tasked to agents is operating in "best-of-suite" condition.

"It's pretty exciting. This," he said, "is the opportunity."

• Spotify Wrapped has added a new feature, and it's humiliating some of us!
• Young people who listen to classic rock or '90s music are shocked to be called old.
• A colleague who's in his 30s and listens to a lot of jazz got an age of 86. I got 59 — and I'm 44.

Every December, Spotify Wrapped manages to disappoint parents of young children by reminding them that their identity as fully fledged humans has been erased, leaving just a husk of a vessel that exists only to hit the repeat button on "Wheels on the Bus" or the "Encanto" soundtrack.

But, oh, how the tables have finally turned. Now, young people in their teens and 20s are getting a dose of Spotify's cruel and merciless wrath.

Spotify Wrapped just added a new metric to its year-end personalized wrap-up: "listening age." In addition to telling you which songs and artists you listened to the most, it will give you an estimated age based on your listening tastes.

And for some people, it's waaaay off. And Gen Z — and even some of us in the older set — is getting offended.

Gharieth Edries is only 23, but Spotify just told him his listening age is 50. Edries told me that he isn't totally surprised.

"I dabbled in a bit of Duran Duran this year, due to my parents, unknowingly realizing that I would become overly obsessed with their artwork and that it would appear in my top 5 artists (their music is just sooooo good)," he said. Duran Duran opened a door to more.

"Depeche Mode, Wham, Pet Shop Boys, New Order. These are some of my mother's favorite bands, and I completely understand her now."

Charlotte Ward, 22 in real life, is a big Fleetwood Mac fan, and Spotify pegged her as 68 — "unc" status in Gen Z slang.

I have also been a victim of Spotify's mis-aging me. I'm a spry and youthful 44, but apparently my listening habits are those of a 59-year-old. (I also like '80s music, although I would have assumed the dominance of the "K-Pop Demon Hunters" soundtrack would have dragged down my average.)

A few of my colleagues here at Business Insider also got some surprising ages: Economy editor Bartie Scott, who's 36, got 72, and media editor Nathan McAlone, who's also 36, got a whopping 86 years old. (He thinks that's because he listens to a lot of classic jazz while reading at home, which sounds very cozy and also exactly what an 86-year-old would do.)

Spotify also suggested some people were younger than they actually are. "I got 23 and tbh I think that's more offensive somehow," an unnamed 39-year-old reporter who's too embarrassed to use her real name said in one of our Slacks. And my editor is 47, but Spotify told him he's got the musical tastes of someone who's 30.

The exact formula for calculating the listening age is unclear, but my guess is that it involves assuming a listener is 18 to 20 years old at the year a song is released. The assumption is that if you listen to a ton of the Beatles, your listening age is going to be around 75. If you listen to mainly Taylor Swift, you're probably 34. I asked Spotify for its secret sauce, but it didn't immediately respond.

Is it cringe to listen to music that's way older than you actually are? Well, maybe. Being young and listening to old music is a sign you're developing a deep and varied musical palate, right? The really humiliating thing would be to be 44 and have it accurately peg you for listening to the same stuff that came out when you were in college. Is having the musical tastes of a much younger person cool or not cool? I truly don't know!

What does it all mean? It's all part of the weird fascination of Spotify Wrapped. Music is so uniquely personal; we feel it says so much about who we are, and we can feel proud or embarrassed by this.

As someone who has ceded control of Spotify to my kids' whims for the last decade, I am delighted to see others join my pain. Maybe when I'm actually 59, I'll have the time to get back into new music on my own.

• Citi named 276 new managing directors on Wednesday, the bank's highest rank below the C-suite.
• This year's class is about 20% smaller than 2024's 344 promotions.
• Business Insider has the full list of newly promoted managing directors.

Citi has a new group of senior leaders joining its highest ranks.

On Wednesday, the bank announced 276 managing directors, elevating the class of leaders to its highest rank below the C-suite.

This year's class includes 55 promotions in markets, 45 in banking, 40 in wealth, and 33 in services, the bank's unit that helps clients manage and move money globally. The promotions reflect the firm's strong year in the markets and its push to drive more growth from banking, wealth, and its unique services business — all three of which have undergone major revamps in recent years.

The class is about 20% smaller than Citi's last cohort of promotes — the 344 employees it elevated to MD in 2024, the largest class since Jane Fraser became CEO. That group leaned heavily toward markets, wealth, and tech roles. But the drop-off makes this the smallest MD class since 2020, when the bank promoted 241 people. In 2023, it announced 304 new MDs; in 2022, 331; and in 2021, 306.

"Their promotions arrive after a year that asked a lot from all of us as we raised our performance and pushed ahead on the work that will define Citi's next chapter," the executive management team members — including CEO Jane Fraser — wrote in an internal memo viewed by Business Insider.

"Each of these new MDs played a meaningful role in that progress. They led teams through a fast-moving environment, kept focus on what mattered most, and helped turn strategy into action," the memo continued, citing their contributions as helping to accelerate Citi's "steps toward becoming an AI-enabled bank with smarter operations and a clearer foundation for growth."

A Citi spokesperson told Business Insider that the number of promotions varies each year, "taking into account the firm's skill and leadership needs, attrition, external hiring, and other relevant considerations."

On Wednesday morning, Citi marked the annoucements with "roll call" gatherings across its business units — some in person, others remote — a tradition the bank has expanded in recent years. Members of the executive management team led a call with the newly promoted group to share advice, then held their own roll calls within their divisions to read the names aloud.

The promotions come as Citi continues a multiyear effort to simplify its structure, strengthen risk and control functions, and invest in a large-scale tech turnaround.

The bank's strategy

The overhaul has reshaped its leadership and reorganized significant parts of the bank. In recent years, Fraser brought on star executives like former JPMorgan dealmaker Viswas Raghavan, as executive vice chair, to turn the firm's investment banking operations around.

The firm has made significant gains in the past 12 months in sectors like investment banking — which saw a 23% year-over-year bump in fees to $1.15 billion in the third quarter — and its markets unit, which handles trading, experienced a 15% bump.

The new 2025 managing directors come from 21 countries and represent 32 nationalities, the bank said. Two-thirds are multi-lingual, and 30% have worked in at least two countries for Citi. They have a median of 16 years of experience at the firm, and 20 years in financial services overall. Twenty-three percent joined Citi through an early-career program, the bank added.

Nearly half — 134, or almost 49% of the class — are based in North America; 18% in the UK; followed by nearly 10% in Japan, north Asia, and Australia. The rest are dispersed in other regions.

Below is the full list of Citi's newly promoted managing directors.

Banking (45)

Ram Anand

Siddharth Bansal

Irina Berg

Aaron Bloch

Thomas Brancourt

Sarah Briddon

Matteo Casadei

Ricardo Celayeta

Varun Chokhani

Alexios Coscoros

Nick J Dragisic

Samuel H Eisner

Sascha Hahn

Thomas Holsten Leren

Jun Hong

Keng Huat Koay

Terry Koizou

Brian Krieger

Piotr Krupa

Jonathan Laycock

Minha Lee

Ryan Li

Menzi Lukhele

Christopher Marino

David Moreno

Koyu Mori

Victor Mourad

Janusz Nelson

Milan Ninkov

Daniel O'Czerny

Vineet Puri

Ifti Qurashi

Shirley Riches

Raimund Riedl

Alfonso Saturno

Michael Seidenfeld

Dhruv Sethi

Pei Pei Sim

Sam Sun

Steven Thompson

Nisheeth Ranjan Tripathi

Mimi Tse

Vineet Vetts

Stephen White

Saad Zaman

Chief Operating Office (7)

Babar Ahmed

Traci Brooks

Sheetal Chanderkar

David Noyce

Scott L Phillips

Brett Russo

Sana Sayed

Client (18)

Eugene Belostotsky

Vanessa Bernardino

Yogesh Bhatt

Tom Cerasoli

Nedra Nichelle Collins

Alexander Guffanti

Jeffrey Kurges

Eric O Ligan

Beata Manthey

Andre Mazini

Jyothi Narayanan

Caio Patricio

Monique Pollard

Vibhor Rastogi

Arthur Smith

Hana Uddin

David M Wollin

Kyna Wong

Enterprise Services and Public Affairs (1)

Rula Dajani

Finance (12)

Tristan Clark

Eric Haugk

Jai Maxwell

Diego Miyake dos Santos

Ney Peralta

Robert Sabochick

Watcharee Thitibordin

Ben Vance

Sharan Wadhwa

Hua Wang

Jon Warren

Matt Welsh

Global Legal Affairs & Compliance (17)

Maitane Arozena

Jonathan Barkey

Sandra Behar

Soumyajyoti Bose

Jessica Britton

Mark DeAngelis

Robert Ehrlich

Rick Gambs

Omar Garduño Chavero

Lindsay Gatto

Justin Marc Irwin

Bruno Kumi

Fiona Mahon

Valerie Nezianya

Abhimanyu Singh Poonia

Rahul Dev Sharma

Ann-Katrin Wilczek

Human Resources (3)

Victoria Hooker

Jacqueline Lucas

Marc Polinsky

Internal Audit (2)

Cedrick Parize

Amine Trifi

International (2)

Jay Jhala

Malcolm Munoz

Legacy Franchises (7)

Eduardo Allegre Marquez

Robert Baltazares

Alejandro Díaz Romo

Larissa Garduño

Sreekanth Malisetti

Xavier Villalobos

Carlos Zamudio

Markets (55)

Omar Ahmed

Eric Bakkensen

Miles Patrick Bartholomew

Thomas Baud

Kanika Berry

Thomas Beviss

Stefania Calabretta

Alex Chiew

Sangini Chopra

Dominique de Peyrecave

Lindsay DeChiaro

Gaurav Dhingra

Matthew Doyle

Ryan Ellis

Michael Fielder

Troy Fraser

Brian Fugazy

Tom Gallagher

Ben Gardiner

Sean Garvey

Ting Guo

Tom Heslop

Kyle Higgs

Vito Hinora

Stuart Kaiser

Ryutaro Katano

Christina Keeler

Kemal Keskin

Ray King

Giovanni Laureri

Dessislava Lazarova

Hyungjoo Albert Lee

Sunny Li

Noah Mao

Liam McShane

Deepak Mehra

Loubna Moutai

Hooi Wan Ng

Truong Nguyen

Andrea Olivari

Sebastian Palacio

Jennifer Podurgiel

Yash (Shreyash) Priyank

Diana Ribeiro

Bryant Schlichting

Nagaraja Shenoy

Byungnoh Sohn

Zhengyuan Sun

Thomas Szelestey

Michael Tamburrino

Henrique Utrini

Mandakini Vadher

Sean Walsh

Tadeusz Wysocki

Timothy Young En

Risk Management (11)

Ritesh Bansal

Shivani Datadin

Matt Fleet

Christian James

Lauren Karfonta

Elizabeth McAlpine

Shilpa Saroha

Charles Tao

Shantanu Upadhyay

Natalia Villazan

Yoyo (Xiaotong) Yan

Services (33)

Leena Aich

Lorna Ballard

David Bartlett

Ignacio Capparelli

Valentina Chuang

Patricia Corregiari

Rubin Kiran Dave

Arpit Desai

Virginie Dhouibi

Katie Dilaj

Katherine Earl

Meng Wei Feng

Brian Gauvain

Ganas Govender

Ilyas Khan

Nimit Khare

Xin Lin

Aneesh Kumar Mahajan

Jared Mecham

John Murphy

Mick Murray

Tony Nanez

Caitlyn Oster

Christopher Piparo

Andrew Quan

Christopher Ravn

Christoph Rosemeyer

Ernesto Sarria

Shalin Shroff

Rufus Southwood

Rodrigo Takaku

Will Thorne

Tanya McKnight Williams

Technology & Business Enablement (15)

Zak Bahri

Katie Fontana

Rama Gontla

Shantharam Iyer

Prashant Jain

Daniel Jepp

Alina Kamat

Konstantine Kos

Rajiv Mirjankar

Viral Patel

Kevin Peel

Namita Saran

Bhagavathi Satchithanantham

Nikhil Shah

Elvis Veliz

U.S. Personal Banking (8)

Matthew DiPisa

Rohan D'Souza

Promiti Dutta

Patrick Gallagher

Paul Gawlik

Jess Lucas

Neri Neri

Dani Paul

Wealth (40)

Manuel Alvarez

Patricia Avallone

Zakir Banatwala

Duygu Baydur

Julie Bennett

Gunjan Bhatt

Boyko Botev

Analicia Gil Brocchetto

Asaad Chaudry

Benjamin Dx Choo

Angie Clardy

Vishal Desai

Jose Huerta

Ahmad Jamaleddine

Richard Jiang

Stephan Lanz

Jeanne Lee

Andrew Li

Sherlock Lou

Billal Malik

Megan Malone

Vikram Manik

Peter Manno

Morgan Morris

Sarah Wee Hian O

Stephen Pak

Avanee Vasant Patel

Darlene Yuting Patterson

Deborah Querub

Sebastian Rubano

Thomas Schlaus

Ash Shandilya

Vibhor Singh

Michael Squillante

Priya Sriskantharajah

Luca Vodini

Ivo Voynov

Richard Weintraub

John Whitelaw

RuiRui Zhu