Lloyd C. Blankfein

Lloyd C. Blankfein is CEO and chairman of Goldman Sachs, having held the position since the end of May 2006. He was born in NYC's Bronx borough, and raised in the Linden Houses section of Brooklyn. His father was a USPS clerk in Manhattan, and his mother was a receptionist. As a teen, he worked at Yankee Stadium at a concession stand, and he was educated in NYC's public school system. He graduated as valedictorian from Thomas Jefferson High School, and attended Harvard for his BA degree. He returned there for his J.D. degree, earning it in 1978.

Lloyd C. BlankfeinHis first job out of school was as a corporate attorney for Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine; in 1981, he joined J. Aron & Co., which is Goldman's commodity trading arm. Blankfein is the Gala Chairman of the Rockefellers' Asia Society, and he also serves on the Robin Hood Foundation's board. Blankfein earned just over $54 million in 2006, making him one of Wall Street's highest-paid executives. His wages were a reflection of Goldman Sachs' performance that year; the company earned a record $9.5 billion. His pay package included a $27.3 million cash bonus, and the rest was paid in options and stock. In 2007, Blankfein earned just over $53 million, which included a salary of $600,000, a $26 million cash bonus, ten million in stock options and fifteen million in stocks.

In Forbes Magazine, Blankfein was named one of 2009's most outrageous CEOs. The Financial Times named him as 2009's Person of the Year, and in the beginning of 2010 he testified before the FCIC, saying that Goldman Sachs was a market maker and not a creator of subprime mortgage securities. Blankfein's company was sued in April 2010 by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraudulently selling collateral debt connected to subprime mortgages. With Blankfein in a leadership position, Goldman Sachs has faced criticism on issues ranging from its executive compensation packages to the way it helped Greece camouflage the size of its debt.

Blankfein testified before a Congressional committee, saying that the company had no obligation to tell its clients that it was hedging its bets against the products they were purchasing. He contributes to Democratic campaigns and he donated $4,600 to Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2007. Goldman Sachs employees and their families gave almost $1 million to the Obama campaign as well, making it that campaign's single-largest contributor.