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Goldman $ach$ names partner$
It's not all bad news on Wall Street, at least not for those at the top of the heap.
Goldman Sachs, who pays out the most in bonuses each year, on Wednesday named 94 new members to its elite club of partner managing directors. This group of 443 men and women typically share a fifth of the firm's bonus pool, which is nothing to sneeze at, even if compensation is down this year.
Below is the memo and the list:
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October 29, 2008
Goldman Sachs Announces the Partner Class of 2008 We are pleased to announce that the following individuals have been invited to become partners as of November 29, 2008, the start of our next fiscal year. These appointments recognize the contributions and potential of some of the firm's most valued senior professionals.
Paul R. Aaron
Sean J. Gallagher
David M. Marcinek
Heather K. Shemilt
Sanggyun Ahn
Gonzalo R. Garcia
Blake W. Mather
Magid N. Shenouda
Philip S. Armstrong
Paul E. Germain
John J. McCabe
Suhail A. Sikhtian
Charles Baillie
Paul Graves
John J. McGuire Jr.
Gavin Simms
Philip R. Berlinski
E. Glenn Hadden
Milton R. Millman III
Marshall Smith
Robert A. Berry
Jonathan J. Hall
Christopher Milner
John D. Storey
Oliver R. Bolitho
Jan Hatzius
Christina P. Minnis
Patrick M. Street
Patrick T. Boyle
Martin Hintze
Takashi Murata
Ram K. Sundaram
Stephen Branton-Speak
Todd Hohman
Todd G. Owens
Robert J. Sweeney
Anne F. Brennan
James P. Houghton
Craig W. Packer
Michael J. Swenson
Samuel S. Britton
Paul J. Huchro
Gilberto Pozzi
Jeffrey M. Tomasi
Jason G. Cahilly
Hidehiro Imatsu
Lora J. Price
David G. Torrible
Martin Cher
Alan S. Kava
Lorin P. Radtke
Frederick Towfigh
Denis P. Coleman III
Dimitrios Kavvathas
Richard M. Ramsden
Greg A. Tusar
Kevin P. Connors
Larry M. Kellerman
Michael J. Richman
Andrea A. Vittorelli
James V. Covello
Hideki Kinuhata
Michael Rimland
Paul Walker
Jeffrey R. Currie
Michael E. Koester
Luigi G. Rizzo
Alasdair J. Warren
Albert F. Dombrowski
J. Christopher
A. Kojima
Scott A. Romanoff
Dominic A. Wilson
Thomas M. Dowling
Michiel P. Lap
Julian Salisbury
Steve Windsor
L. Brooks Entwistle
Brian J. Lee
Paul D. Scialla
Martin Wiwen-Nilsson
Stephan J. Feldgoise
David A. Lehman
Peter E. Scialla
Denise A. Wyllie
Benjamin W. Ferguson
Deborah R. Leone
Peter A. Seccia
Han Song Zhu*
Wolfgang Fink
John S. Lindfors
Rebecca M. Shaghalian
Timur F. Galen
H.C. Liu
Devesh P. Shah * Employee of Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities Company Limited
We congratulate all of those selected and wish them continued success in their careers. These decisions are extremely difficult and we would like to acknowledge the contributions of those who were not selected this year. We are confident that many of them will be selected in the future. Lloyd C. Blankfein Jon Winkelried Gary D. Cohn
Is Wall Street poised for a makeover?
There’s no question Wall Street is undergoing a transformation of sorts with the recent rash of job losses and do-or-die consolidations. But once the dust has settled – what then?
It just may be the start of Wall Street’s warm and fuzzy rebirth, Forbes reports.
“The new Wall Street will be, in some ways, a friendlier place,” writes Michael Maiello. “Investors are no longer interested in secretive hedge fund managers and inscrutable quant trading strategies, and so personal relationships and personal responsibility on the part of financial advisers will be paramount virtues.”
But this supposed new Wall Street — where banks both big and small can flourish, where the personal touch is paramount — has a lot of skeptics to win over. Just today, Fidelity Investments said it was reviewing its staffing amid speculation of 4,000 layoffs. Meanwhile, reports that battered banks have set aside an estimated $20 billion for bonuses is surely confounding news for the thousands of newly-axed bankers left in their wake. What’s more, a new survey shows that most financial professionals aren’t just hoping for a bonus, they’re expecting it.
Is Wall Street capable of making a positive change, or is it headed for more of the same? Share your thoughts with us below.
Think wall street types will lie low until the dust settles. Personal greed and the quest for glory which has driven much of wall street activities in the past is at odds with the kinder, gentler wall street. Old habits die hard.
Job Bank – Oct. 28
The following financial services industry appointments were announced on October 28, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
Lazard Lazard Ltd said Alexis de Rosnay will join the firm as a vice chairman of Lazard International and as a senior member of its global financial advisory team, starting on Nov. 12. De Rosnay, based in London, was previously at Lehman Brothers, where he was co-head of investment banking for Europe and the Middle East as well as global co-head of health-care investment banking.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher hired David Feldman, Eric Wise and Matthew Williams as partners in its New York office as partners. All three were formerly partners at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel. The firm said they joined Gibson Dunn’s business restructuring and reorganization practice group, with Feldman co-chairing the group.
LPL Financial Independent broker-dealer LPL Financial hired Bruce Harrington as senior vice president of retirement solutions. Harrington will focus on developing the retirement plan platform, identifying retirement income solutions, and generating ways for independent financial advisers to best capture rollovers from their existing plans and other sources.
FBR Capital Markets FBR Capital Markets Corp, a middle-market investment bank, hired Kurt Oehlberg, Sharon Weinstein and Christopher Weyers as managing directors in its investment banking group. Oehlberg was named managing director in FBR Capital Markets’ energy & natural resources group, Weinstein joins its financial institutions group, and Weyers joins the company’s diversified industrials group. Insight Investment Management (Global) Ltd The investment manager of HBOS Plc announced that Colm McDonagh has joined its fixed income team as head of emerging markets. Prior, McDonagh was with Hydra Capital Management. Grant Thornton UK LLP The business and financial adviser appointed Alistair Drage as associate director within its leasing and asset finance team. He was previously a partner with a boutique advisory firm. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc Merrill appointed Kristjon Gretarsson and Mikael Nass to focus on ultra-high net worth and high net worth clients in Iceland and Sweden respectively. Prior, Nass was with Kuylenstierna & Skog SA and Gretarssonc was with Glitnir Bank
ING Real Estate The real estate company said Kevin Aitchison has started in his new role as the chief executive Investment Management UK following Robert Houston’s appointment as CEO of the global investment management business. Aitchison has been with the company for more than eight years.
The bright side of financial turmoil
Who says it’s all gloom and doom on Wall Street? Sure, job cuts are fast and furious these days, but the deepening financial crisis is bringing about some interesting unintended consquences. Time magazine reports that although the government bailout caps the salaries of top executives, it may actually prop up the bonuses of rank and file bankers.
True, those bonuses are substantially lower than they would’ve been had the markets not imploded in recent weeks — but not nearly as low as one might expect.
Compensation consultant Alan Johnson predicts the average managing director at an investment bank will be on the receiving end of a $625,000 bonus this year, with top bankers earning as much as $1 million. That may be a tough pill to swallow for the taxpayers footing the bailout bill, but some argue that bankers shouldn’t be penalized for their firm’s bad decisions.
Banks already recognize the importance of rewarding newly acquired talent. Bank of America last week offered retention packages to more than 15,000 Merill brokers in a bid to stave off defections. Only time will tell if it works.
Do Wall Street payouts need to be reined in? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.
Too easy to say, its ‘not right’ for bankers to get large bonus pay outs on the back of bail outs. It has to be relative to the individuals contribution in terms of revenue to bank. The banks have loaned money, that is what all companies do in tough times, the government reached out and held up the main banks because they were fearful of a total collapse and confidence panic in the market. If the money was not given in contract where it was stipulated there are constraints on bonus pay-outs to employees because we have loaned out the money then fine but it is not the case, therefore the banks are free to run their business as they see fit. Couple of points are to retain the best people in the market, one has to pay top bonuses. The money if not loaned then the government gets a stake at a rock bottom price which makes for an excellent investment correct? If so then when the share price rockets at whatever point in the future, then the government stand to make a healthy profit, makes perfect sense to me – there are no favours here, the governments will cash in at some point – not that the tax payer will benefit! Tough job making money for these guys, very bright, very sharp, top of their game and the bonus is relative to how much money they have made for the bank so why should they not get paid what they signed upto – because the government used tax payers money? One investment bank who is paying out excellent bonuses have already paid back the bail out money and made enough to pay its employees good bonuses. It is wrong in a sense, but wrong of the governement not to have managed it better rather than the banks for paying well. Tax payers should be compensated according to share price increase of the ‘investments’ (rather than bail-outs) that the government has made, let’s see some money flowing back into our pockets in terms of rate cuts and benefits to the public off the back of the hefty profits the governments of the world will make when things turn around.
Job Bank – Oct.27
The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Oct. 27, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please send an e-mail to: moves@thomsonreuters.com.
Deloitte
Deloitte Financial Advisory Services (Deloitte FAS) said it elected David Williams as chief executive officer and Kerry Francis as chairman for the U.S. portion of the unit. Williams, 46, replaces Frank Piantidosi who has been CEO since 2003. Piantidosi is moving into the role of chief executive of Deloitte North America Financial Advisory. Francis, 47, will continue to hold her standing title as leader of the group’s national Corporate Investigations practice.
BearingPoint
Consulting firm BearingPoint said it hired Michael Kirby, former deputy undersecretary of the Army, to bolster its public services business transformation expertise. Kirby was responsible for implementing the Army’s business transformation initiatives while serving at Army headquarters, the company said.
MFC Global Investment Management MFC Global Investment Management said it has named Jeffrey Santerre as head of product management in the United States. Santerre is responsible for developing and implementing investment strategies in the United States, the company said.
Rothschild Boutique investment bank Rothschild has hired three M&A bankers from Lehman Brothers in a sign that some smaller banks remain confident even as the credit crisis ravages their larger rivals. Rothschild, said it had appointed Antonio Villalon as co-head of its Global Financial Institutions Group (FIG). Rothschild also named Stephen Fox as co-head of its British FIG, while Philippe Le Baquer joined to work on FIG deals in continental Europe and on cross-border deals.
Bracing for the pink slip epidemic
After a seemingly endless run of job cuts this week, Chrysler’s plan to slash a whopping 25 percent of its white-collar jobs handily goes to show how quickly problems in the finance sector leak into the rest of the economy.
Taken alongside cuts at Yahoo, Xerox and others, could this be the beginning of the so-called “pink slip epidemic”?
“When the dot-com and housing bubbles burst, it was easy to see what types of jobs would disappear. But these days as nervous lenders cower and credit contracts, virtually every industry is likely to be scathed in the widely predicted downturn,” writes Business Week‘s Moira Herbst.
The Wall Street Journal paints a similarly dire picture, noting that once-sheltered industries such as healthcare and technology are likely to feel the pinch, culminating in more job cuts and a steeper economic slump than most imagined.
But is that a bright spot? Breaking Views via the New York Times writes that Goldman Sachs’ plans to slash its headcount by 3,300 might not necessarily be a signal of doom. After all, Goldman managed to sidestep much of the credit damage that befell its peers, and its downsizing plans will bring it in line with rival Morgan Stanley. Is it just a simple game of catch up?
Job Bank – Oct. 24
The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Oct. 24, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
CITIGROUP INC
Citigroup Inc has hired two former senior Lehman Brothers fixed income executives, according to internal memos obtained by Reuters. Andrew Morton, previously global head of fixed income at Lehman, has joined Citi as managing director and head of G10 rates, risk treasury, and fixed income finance. John Gallo, formerly global head of liquid market sales at Lehman, has joined Citi as managing director and head of North American sales across multiple asset classes.
CREDIT SUISSE GROUP The bank named Ian Marsh chief executive of the UK Private Banking business. Marsh starts his new role from Nov. 1. Marsh is a managing director of Credit Suisse, based in London.
When bad things happen to bankers
Add 3,300 people to the long list of casualties of the credit crunch. Sources say Goldman Sachs plans to slash more than 10 percent of its workforce, a sobering sign of the times for a Wall Street stalwart that has largely dodged the massive credit losses that have taken out its peers. Once heralded as “tarnished, but not broken”, the latest round of job cuts will bring the bank’s headcount to the lowest level since 2006.
“These are not the last job cuts you will see,” warned Michael Williams, dean of Pepperdine University’s Graziado School of Business.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York dealt another blow to job prospects on Wall Street, noting in a recent report that “the current financial turmoil will weaken employment in the city’s finance sector.”
So what does this mean for job-hunters? For starters, be patient. Employers are bracing themselves for uncertain times, notes the Washington Post, and are therefore opting to “sit steady and be conservative in hiring,” says Paul Villella, chief executive of HireStrategy.
Job Bank – Oct. 23
The following financial services industry appointments were announced on October 23, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
ARCH CAPITAL GROUP LTD The reinsurance company named John Hele chief financial officer, effective April 1. Hele, who is currently the CFO of ING Group, will be based in Arch Capital’s Bermuda headquarters and will replace John Vollaro. Vollaro will continue with the company as senior advisor.
ROADSHOW HOLDINGS LIMITED Hong Kong-based investment holding company said Winnie Ng has been appointed as deputy chairman, non-executive director and a member of the audit committee, with effect from Oct. 13, 2008. The company also named Edmond Ho Tat Man non-executive director, effective Oct. 13, 2008.
THREADNEEDLE INVESTMENTS The London based asset management firm hired Lesley Carline as client relationship manager with the Defined Contributions Pensions team. Carline joins from Xafinity Paymaster where she was SPS Client Director.
MIDLAND IC&I LIMITED Investment holding company said Ip Kit Yee has resigned as executive director of the Company with effect from Oct. 25, 2008. Yee has been appointed by Midland Holdings Limited, the company’s parent company, as executive director with effect from Oct. 25, 2008.
Retirement plans, interrupted
Those lucky enough to hold on to their jobs during the market meltdown are facing another conundrum as the clock ticks towards retirement: should they stay or should they go? Canada’s Globe and Mail reports that an increasing number of soon-to-be retirees are opting to stay in the workforce, at least until their retirement savings recover.
“Retirement at 65 years is now headed for retirement at 70 years,” says Mike Harvey, talent manager for Prime 50, which focuses on employment for the 50-plus set.
That’s bad news for those dreaming of putting their work days behind them, and even worse news for up-and-coming professionals looking to fill their shoes.
But aging workers might find it difficult to stick around. A recent study by the Conference Board of Canada found that only 6 percent of major Canadian employers are focused on retaining older workers, and 11 percent said they are attracting and recruiting mature workers as part of their hiring programs.
Are you considering re-entering the workforce post-retirement? Share your tips in the comments section for making a smooth transition.
