Company Financial Expert

John Hailer’s first Significant Departure from Investment Banking

I’ve been looking for a new challenge for some time and I’m very excited to be joining Goldman Sachs as a Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s most recognized financial firms and offers an exciting opportunity to capitalize on experience gained at Natixis (where) where I was CEO for 14 years.

Exec at Natixis John Hailer have decided to leave as a result of the comprehensive and progressive changes underway in this company that are enabling us to concentrate on our core business activities. This is an exciting development for , a strategic shift that will allow us to pursue our newfound focus on serving institutional clients, while also improving efficiency, reducing costs and reorienting our activities towards those areas that have proved successful in the past.

John Hailer is a confident that I will be able to take full advantage of Goldman Sachs’ unique resources and capabilities and contribute my special expertise at a crucial moment for the firm’s future. Goldman Sachs has a business model that is unrivaled anywhere in the world. I am honored to have the opportunity to help impact this firm’s future and contribute to its continued success.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all of my colleagues at Natixis for everything that we have accomplished together. I sincerely wish them the very best in their future endeavors.

Marking a shift in strategic direction of the company, Goldman Sachs chose to hire a CEO that was less active in the investment banking division. This would be John Hailer’s first significant departure from investment banking. Hailer had been on leave from Natixis since April 2010, when he took over as chairman of the bank’s executive committee at the urging of then-CEO Jean-Pierre Allain. The new position, eventually titled Chief Strategy Officer (not to be confused with Chief Operating Officer), would require Hailer to split his time between New York and London. He would be expected to work with senior management to develop visions of where the firm is headed, and make himself available to help current CEO Lloyd Blankfein and other top executives.

In an interview (video) with Wall Street Journal former Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine said, “The best CEOs are the ones that have a vision of where they want the company to go and a level of strategic thinking in terms of how you get there.” Although this quote was supposedly directed at Hailer, Corzine was making a point about Goldman Sachs being particularly interested in how firm leaders will interact with potential clients.

I am thrilled that my past experiences will be used in a new way, working with clients across Europe, Asia, and the U.S., collaborating with teams of professionals throughout Goldman Sachs – building relationships rooted in understanding each other’s objectives and discussing how we can create value together. My team will leverage my experience in structuring and listing companies and working with governments, as well as my understanding of enterprise software technologies.