Was Goldman Sachs motivated by nepotism and self-interest when, in 2010, it just happened to hire the daughter of a close ally to the Malaysian prime minister just around the time that Goldman’s bankers were pitching for some lucrative business to the Malaysian investment fund?
Maybe not. Goldman has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the firm is “looking into” its hiring practices as a result of the coincidence. It recruited the well-connected University of Melbourne graduate, Anis Jamaludin as an analyst in 2010 having reportedly “put her through the same interview process as other candidates” and had her “cleared by…legal and compliance departments.” One month later, the Wall Street Journal notes that Goldman was hired by ‘1Malaysia Development Bhd, the government investment fund to review the possible purchase of a hydroelectric dam.
Irrespective of the conditions of Jamaludin’s recruitment, one thing is clear: she didn’t stick around. Her LinkedIn profile suggests that after joining Goldman’s Singapore analyst class in July 2010, she quit in November. And what does Jamaludin do now? She works for ‘Startup Institute’ in Boston. Elite offspring just don’t want to work for investment banks any more.
Separately, if you’re an IBD analyst working a 72 hour week, Michael Bloomberg knows your pain. When Bloomberg worked for John Gutfreund, the bond trader and former Salomon brothers chief executive who died on Wednesday, he reportedly put in, “15 years of 12-hour days and six-day weeks.” And at the end of that? – He was let go. “Gutfreund had hired me as a fresh MBA when I needed a job — and he had fired me when my era there had passed,” Bloomberg reflected. Thankfully he went on to do something else instead.
Meanwhile:
Thomas “TJ” Carella is joining private equity firm Warburg Pincus after leading healthcare investments for Goldman Sachs. (Fortune)
Be careful which fixed income platform you work for. (Trade News)
Ex-equity researcher turned CIO leaves large London hedge fund. (WSJ)
Now that Tom King’s left and the UK’s senior managers regime has arrived, Jes Staley is suddenly responsible for all that goes on within Barclays’ investment bank. (Financial News)
How to undermine a colleague who wants your job: hire someone externally from a completely unrelated position to be your new deputy. (Bloomberg)
Hot new initiative at Blackrock: sit young bucks who know how to code next to old stags who know the market and see what transpires. (Business Insider)
Now available at Twitter: cash bonuses of $50k to $200k. (WSJ)
And the most expensive city in the world is….Singapore. (Independent)
U.S. workers rank dead last among 18 industrial countries when it comes to “problem solving in technology-rich environments. (WSJ)
Morgan Stanley MD wants to hire people with the “hustle gene”. (Business Insider)
Explaining the ECB’s decision to expand QE: $2.3 trillion of European bank debt will mature between now and the end of 2017. (Bloomberg)
This is what Goldman Sachs’ Open Compute Project looks like. (Github)
Bank of America has let a lot of senior people go. Management asked for a list of people who could be cut a few weeks ago, and then asked for some more. (Business Insider)
Photo credit: Goldman Sachs by Thomas Dimson is licensed under CC BY 2.0.