Pimco Employees Almost Had The Chance To Speak With Goldman's Gary Cohn On A Grundle-To-Face Basis

As opposed to the face-to-how-dare-you-f*cking-look-at-me basis they'd grown accustomed to.
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Bloomberg's Mary Childs reports that in the wake of Mohamed El-Erian deciding he could no longer work in an office with a no eye contact/no speaking policy, Pimco mulled over the idea of hiring Goldman No. 2 Gary Cohn as a replacement. (Cohn, some of you might recall, is known for "hiking up one leg, plant[ing] his foot on a trader's desk, his thigh close to the employee's face, and asking how the markets [are] doing.")

Cohn was on a short list of potential candidates to succeed Mohamed El-Erian as chief executive officer, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private. At the time, Pimco and Bill Gross were working on a succession plan that included a smaller role for Gross, who co-founded the firm in 1971, the people said...While Pimco’s idea of hiring Cohn never progressed beyond informal conversations, he stood to increase his compensation substantially. Pimco paid El-Erian a bonus of about $230 million in 2013 as part of an executive profit-sharing plan as the firm’s assets approached $2 trillion. Cohn was awarded $26.9 million for 2013, according to the Bloomberg Pay Index.

Sure, the extra money might've been nice, but can you really put a price on being the Ben to Lloyd's Matt? Sure they've had their rough patches, as all bromances do every now and then, but you don't trade in a best friendship with LB for some cheap thrills in Newport Beach.

Pimco Said to Have Considered Goldman’s Cohn for Top Job [Bloomberg]

Related: Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn Likes To Speak To Employees On A Grundle-To-Face Basis

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Greg Smith Shares Bloomberg Reporters' Appreciation For Gary Cohn's Grundle-To-Face Conversations

As many of you know, here at Dealbreaker we consider ourselves the preeminent scholars on Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn's grundle. Specifically, the grundle-to-face conversations he reportedly enjoys having with employees on the trading floor. So we were more than a little delighted to hear that Greg Smith's book, Why I Left Goldman Sachs, contained a passage describing Cohn's preferred position to assume while havin' a chat. Sayeth Smith: Gary had a very distinctive signature move, one he had become famous for within the firm; I must have seen it ten or fifteen times in action. It didn't matter if the person he was talking to was male or female; he would walk up to the salesman or saleswoman, hike up one leg, plant his foot on the person's desk, his thigh close to the employee's face, and ask how markets were doing. Gary was physically commanding, and the move could have been interpreted as a very primal, alpha-male gesture. I think he just thought it was comfortable. For those who have made claims that Smith's book is light on details that any exposé worth its salt would include, please note that reporters at investigative powerhouse Bloomberg News would probably nod approvingly at the above, based on an article they penned last year. Cohn, 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, can be intimidating, two former colleagues said. He would sometimes hike up one leg, plant his foot on a trader’s desk, his thigh close to the employee’s face, and ask how markets were doing, they said. Earlier: Succeeding Blankfein at Goldman May Be Hurdle Too High for Cohn