BLBG:Goldman Sachs Hires Mark Schwartz As Chairman Of Asia-Pacific
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) brought back Mark Schwartz to run its Asian business from Beijing, after an 11-year hiatus during which he ran George Soros’s hedge-fund group and started an investment firm with Raj Rajaratnam.
Schwartz, 57, will also be vice chairman of the firm, New York-based Goldman Sachs said in a statement today. He fills a role left by Michael Evans, who served as chairman of the region since 2004 and is now based in New York as vice chairman and global head of growth markets.
The new Asian chief returns to Goldman Sachs, where he worked for 22 years, as the fifth-biggest U.S. bank by assets seeks to build business in a region that is home to more than half of the world’s population. He will rejoin the company’s management committee, which he served on from 1999 until his departure from the firm in 2001, according to the statement.
Schwartz joined Goldman Sachs’s investment banking unit in 1979. He was head of capital markets from 1991 to 1997 when he moved to Tokyo, becoming president of Japan operations. He was chairman of Asia from 1999 until 2001.
“He played a critical role in helping to build our businesses across Asia Pacific,” Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein said in the statement. “Those experiences and relationships will be even more important as we focus on continuing to help our clients and grow our franchise across the region.”
Schwartz has been chairman of MissionPoint Capital Partners since 2006. He was a senior adviser to Soros Fund Management LLC from 2002 and then president and CEO from 2003 to 2004. Schwartz will be Goldman Sachs's first Asia-Pacific chairman to be based in Beijing.
He started an investment firm in 2006 with partners including Rajaratnam and Rajat Gupta. Rajaratnam was convicted of insider trading and former Goldman Sachs director Gupta is currently on trial for leaking tips to the Galleon Group LLC co- founder.
In the new job, Schwartz will work with Masanori Mochida, president of Goldman Sachs Japan, and David Ryan, president of Asia Pacific Ex-Japan.
To contact the reporter on this story: Cathy Chan in Hong Kong at kchan14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Philip Lagerkranser at lagerkranser@bloomberg.net