As the sole president and COO of a team-obsessed firm that likes to see “co-” in executive titles, Gary Cohn is widely viewed as an heir apparent to the gilded Goldman Sachs throne. The 49-year-old former currency trader has long been at the side of CEO Lloyd Blankfein, going back to their days at J. Aron.
In recent years, Cohn has helped Blankfein run the firm’s trading and principal investing operation, which has powered Goldman’s profits. In March, Cohn told a conference audience that the investment banking business was alive and well and that Goldman, for one, had no intention of changing its business model, even if it had become a bank holding company. Declared Cohn: “Wall Street is not over.”
