[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

Robert E. Diamond, Jr., former CEO of Barclays - you might not recognize him at first glance these days.  For one thing, he's living again in New York City.  He commutes to work by subway.  And before entering his office in Midtown Manhattan, he stands in line to get his morning coffee at the local coffee cart on Park Avenue.  Mind you, he's not complaining - nor should he.  It's just that he lives a lower-keyed life - and no longer runs in the fast lane.  Let's see what else he's up to.

Bob Diamond after the fall: As the dust settles over the Libor scandal and the $453 million Barclays paid to settle allegations, the former CEO is taking stock.  A few things become clear: Mr. Diamond wasn't in banking for the money;  he underestimated the turn the scandal would take until it was too late to retain his leadership;  and he didn't know how Libor, which cost $453 million, was set.

Despite being one of the highest-ranking and highest-paid bankers in the U.K., Mr. Diamond's lifestyle wasn't lavish.  As his fortune increased, the Concord, MA, native, who is also a British citizen, set up a charity, which supports education projects.

"If you look at how Jennifer and I and our three kids have lived our lives, as soon as we had any money at all, we created a family foundation … I think Jennifer and I have always had a great home for our kids. We really like to take vacations with them, so those are good.  But we don't have a boat, we don't have fancy cars.  I think we have lived well, but it hasn't been about accumulation or anything like that."

A Good Life. Today, he owns just one 11-year-old car.  Just last week, the New York Times published pictures of him traveling on the New York subway, to demonstrate how far he has fallen.  To be certain, life is not woe for Mr. Diamond, 61.  His homes, for one, include a holiday home in Nantucket, near Cape Cod; homes in Beaver Creek, the ski resort in Colorado; and a $39 million penthouse apartment looking over Central Park in New York in the same building as Sting and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.  Despite all this, Mr. Diamond maintains his emphasis on hard work. 

"This is going to sound arrogant as hell but I never did anything for money. I never set money as a goal. It was a result."

A Little Too Late. Looking back, the Libor scandal and his dismantling sounds like a muddled nightmare.  During his rein at Barclays (for a period just shy of 2 years), Mr. Diamond was known as Red (after his initials, Robert Edward Diamond).  Days after he took the helm in January of 2011, Mr. Diamond sparked anger when he told MPs that the time for bankers to show remorse for the near-collapse of the banking system was over."  A year and a half later, he came under criticism for the settlement Barclays paid in the Libor scandal.  Confronted with a shareholder rebellion in protest at his proposed payout, Mr. Diamond agreed to tweaks in an attempt to stave off a major revolt.

Of course, in retrospect, we know that didn't work.  One evening, the then Barclays chairman Marcus Agius in July paid a visit to Mr. Diamond's London home, with knew that Bank of England's governor, Sir Mervyn King, wanted him out.  What went through his mind was shock.

"My first reaction, which is still my reaction today, is, he [King] doesn't have the authority to do that!" -- Mr. Diamond.

But the then CEO did step aside, after he discussed the matter with his wife, with whom he has 3 children, and decided the best thing he could do for Barclays was "step aside and shut up".  These days, his intention to return to banking and working with big companies may be driving renewed interaction with the press.  If nothing else, what has emerged makes executive leadership seem all the more vulnerable.

"Do you want the truth?  Up until all of this, I didn't even know the mechanics of how Libor was set.  If you asked me who at Barclays submitted the rate every day, I wouldn't be able to tell you.  I bet you if you asked any chief executive of any bank on the street, they would give you the same answer." -- Mr. Diamond, in an interview with the New York Times.

An American in London. Did Mr. Diamond earn the ire of his contemporaries and shareholders?  Did he create a hostile environment for himself Barclays, giving the firm and the financial community at large a reason to doubt his leadership from the beginning?  Was him being an American in London never going to work?

"Do I think I was tone-deaf to the American thing?  Probably. I think that the anger against banks and bankers, particularly in the UK, was deeper than I realized."

Either way, Mr. Diamond said his departure had been "very positive and kind of liberating".  Nevertheless, don't expect him to remain at Yale as a senior lecturer at Yale University School of Management forever.  In the scorecard of life, he is down, but not out.

For further details, go to [The Guardian, 5/2/13] and [NY Times, 5/2/13].