Henry Paulson

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Henry Paulson (2006)
Henry Paulson's signature

Henry M. Paulson Jr. (born March 28, 1946 in Palm Beach , Florida ; full name Henry Merritt Paulson , nickname Hank ) is an American businessman and politician . From 1999 to 2006 he was Chairman and CEO of the investment bank Goldman Sachs . On May 30, 2006, US President George W. Bush nominated Paulson for the office of Treasury Secretary . The nomination was confirmed by the Senate on June 28, 2006. From July 3, 2006 to January 20, 2009 Paulson succeededJohn W. Snow the 74th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. His successor was Timothy F. Geithner from Barack Obama's administration .

Life

Paulson grew up on a country estate in Barrington Hills , Illinois . He was an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America . Paulson graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts degree at Dartmouth College , where he also joined the fraternity Phi Beta Kappa was. He was also a member of the All Ivy League (association of all eight American elite universities), the All East League (association of all renowned universities on the US East Coast) and the Sigma-Alpha-Epsilon Brotherhood. Mention should be made of his membership of the environmental protection group Green Key Society at Dartmouth College and his activity as chairman of the Christian science organization there.

He later studied at Harvard Business School , where he received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 1970 . It was there that he met his wife, Wendy. Paulson is a devout Christian, married with two grown children.

Career

After graduation, he worked from 1970 to 1972 in the administration of the United States Department of Defense as Assistant Secretary of State in the Department of Defense ( Assistant Secretary of Defense ); In 1972 he found a job in the administration of the White House during Richard Nixon's presidency . Here he worked from 1972 to 1973 as an assistant to John Ehrlichman , who was later involved in the Watergate affair .

Paulson joined Goldman Sachs in Chicago in 1974 . Here he went through further career stages, both in regional branches and in the group headquarters. From 1983 to 1988, Paulson led the Midwest region investment banking group and became a managing partner of the Chicago office. From 1990 he headed the bank's investment department as co-department head and was appointed chief operating officer (COO) in 1994. In June 1998, he succeeded Jon Corzine as Director General and Executive Director. Paulson's annual earnings were approximately $ 37 million in 2005 and an estimated $ 16.4 million in 2006. The value of his fortune is estimated at over $ 700 million. He was also recently chairman of the Financial Services Forum trading group .

Paulson is financially and ideologically a supporter of the Republican Party .

Finance minister

George W. Bush (left) introducing the new Treasury Secretary Paulson

Like his predecessors at the helm of Goldman Sachs ( Jon Corzine and Robert Rubin ), Paulson later returned to the civil service. In May 2006, after the resignation of John W. Snow, President George W. Bush appointed him to his cabinet as the new Treasury Secretary . The Senate confirmed his candidacy in late June; Paulson was officially sworn in in July 2006. Paulson's former colleague at Goldman Sachs , Robert K. Steel , has been named deputy and head of the domestic finance department. It is noteworthy that he addressed the problem of the gap between rich and poor in one of his first public speeches as finance minister and thus triggered the “Inequality Debate of 2006” (“Inequality Debate 2006”). On September 19, 2008 - at the height of the US banking crisis in 2008 - the so-called Paulson Plan was launched, an estimated US $ 700 billion rescue package for the US financial market.

Prior to taking office, Paulson had to sell his stake in Goldman Sachs, valued at several hundred million dollars. Due to a special regulation introduced with the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 , he did not have to pay any taxes on profits.

environmental Protection

Paulson is known for his commitment to nature conservation. As a long-standing member of the Nature Conservancy , he was temporarily its chairman and co-chairman of its Asia-Pacific Council. In that capacity, Paulson worked closely with former President of the People's Republic of China , Jiang Zemin , to save the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan Province, southwest China. He also donated $ 100 million of his Goldman Sachs share stake to conservation and environmental education. Paulson is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Peregrine Fund , which is committed to protecting birds of prey . He was a founding member and chairman of the board of management school " School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University " in Beijing .

Fonts (selection)

  • Dealing with China . New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Henry Paulson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ian Mathias: Dodge Taxes Legally ... Become Treasury Secretary. In: dailyreckoning.com. March 3, 2010, accessed August 19, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Paulson, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Paulson, Henry Merritt Jr. (full name); Paulson, Hank
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American businessman and politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Palm Beach , Florida