Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) announced that they will move executive Kathleen Brown, who runs the West Coast municipal finance team to a newly created post in Chicago. Recently, her brother Jerry Brown was electedCalifornia’s next Governor.
Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, lent the state $1.5 billion in November as part of a syndicate of six banks. The arrangement provided California with a $6.7 billion bridge loan to help pay bills after a budget impasse left the state short on cash. Goldman Sachs was also the lead underwriter on $4.93 billion in bonds sold by the state since Jan. 1, 2009.
Brown, 65, will become chairman of investment banking for the Midwest, New York-based Goldman Sachs said in an internal memo today. The former California state treasurer joined Goldman Sachs as a managing director in 2001. Michael DuValy, a spokesman for the firm, commented “Kathleen is taking on this new role because it broadens her client focus,” DuVally said. “Had she continued to work with California municipalities, it might have created the perception of a conflict of interest.” Brown’s new role will be focused on client relationships and John Gilbertson will continue to run investment banking in the Midwest region, DuVally said. Brown reports to James P. Esposito, the chief operating officer for investment banking, as well as to John Waldron, the head of investment-banking services, DuVally said.
J. Timothy Romer, a managing director in the West Coast public sector and infrastructure group on the West Coast, will succeed Brown as head of the group, DuVally said. Romer, who is based in Los Angeles, joined Goldman Sachs in 2003 after working in public finance at Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) and Merrill
Lynch & Co., which is now part of Bank of America.
