As Michael Corbat prepares to take the helm as chief executive officer of Citigroup, he follows in the footsteps of leaders who have kept the bank afloat for 200 years.

Samuel Osgood was the first to oversee the fledgling institution when it was founded to help the U.S. cover debts after the War of 1812.

Osgood was followed by William Few as the president of the City Bank of New York, which is known today as Citigroup.

The men who followed him led the bank through major innovations from its experimentation with rudimentary ATMs in 1939 through its 1998 merger with Travelers Group.

The bank is still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis that nearly led to its collapse.