The 25 Most Powerful Men In Finance: Only Includes Four Goldman Sachs Employees?

Author:
Bess Levin
Updated:
Jan 14, 2019
Original:
Dec 15, 2009

According to Institutional Investor, yes (Lloyd Blankfein, Gary Cohn, David Heller, and Richard Friedman, who the magazine insinuates has some job security in the fact that his wife is a gal-pal of Laura Blankfein). Also included, Jamie Dimon, obviously, who beats out LB for slot number one, Bob Diamond (4), Brady Dougan (5; really?), Tom Montag (7), Jes Staley (11) and everyone's favorite milkshake lover, Ken Griffin (bringing up the rear at 25).

News

...did pretty well for themselves this last go around, particularly compared to their counterparts at JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, BofA, and Citigroup.

News

A week ago today, a man named Greg Smith resigned from Goldman Sachs. As a sort of exit interview, Smith explained his reasons for departing the firm in a New York Times Op-Ed entitled "Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs." The equity derivatives VP wrote that Goldman had "veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say I identify with what it stands for." Smith went on to note that whereas the Goldman of today is "just about making money," the Goldman he knew as a young pup "revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients." It was a culture that made him "love working for the firm" and its absence had stripped him of "pride and belief" he once held in the place. While claiming that Goldman Sachs has become virtually unrecognizable from the institution founded by Marcus (Goldman) and Samuel (Sachs), which put clients ahead of its own interests, is hardly a new argument, there was something about Smith's words that gave readers a moment's pause. He was so deeply distraught over the differences between the Goldman of 2012 and the Goldman of 2000 (when he was hired) that suggested...more. That he'd seen things. Things that had made an imprint on his soul. Things that he couldn't forget. Things that he held up in his heart for how Goldman should be and things that made it all the more difficult to ignore when it failed to live up to that ideal. Things like this:

News

Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon shocked that no one is masochistic enough to work for all three of them at once.

The 25 Most Powerful Men In Finance: Only Includes Four Goldman Sachs Employees?

Lloyd Blankfein: Goldman Sachs Employees Take Giant Pay Cuts In Stride

Ladies Love (Respect, Admire, Bow Down In The Presence Of) Lloyd Blankfein

Bonus Watch '15: Goldman Sachs CEOs

The 25 Biggest Hedge Funds

Goldman Sachs Shareholders Keeping Executive Suite In Stitches

In Era Of The Pitchforks, Goldman Sachs Employees Wanted To Give The Ignorant Twits Of The World A Piece Of Their Mind

Goldman Sachs Can Fix This

The Three Most Powerful Men In American Business Can't Figure Out Why No One Wants This Terrible Job They Created