Goldman’s Cohn to Head Trump’s National Economic Council
EghtesadOnline: Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Gary Cohn, once the heir apparent to Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, was named President-elect Donald Trump’s top chief economic policy adviser.
Cohn, who has spent more than 25 years at the investment bank, will head the National Economic Council, among the most influential panels inside the White House, helping to coordinate and develop the president’s economic program, Trump said Monday in a statement.
“He will try to do the right thing for the country,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said in a phone interview. “It’s great that they’re picking someone with that quality and talent and that kind of knowledge.”
Cohn, 56, became Goldman Sachs’s co-president in 2006, and later sole president, holding an office that in recent decades has been used to groom the next CEO. Both Blankfein and his predecessor, Henry Paulson, served as presidents of the company before ascending to the top spot. But after 10 years there, Blankfein has signaled no intention of stepping down, leaving Cohn to explore other opportunities, according to Bloomberg.
“Gary has spent his whole career in markets dealing with economic issues and working with clients and his whole career prepares him to be successful in this job,” Paulson said. “He is an outstanding professional. ”