John Livingston Weinberg (January 25, 1925 – August 7, 2006) was an American banker and businessperson, running Goldman Sachs from 1976 to 1990.

Early life

Weinberg was the son of

Sidney Weinberg Sidney James Weinberg (October 12, 1891 – July 23, 1969) was a long-time leader of the Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs, nicknamed “Mr. Wall Street” by ''The New York Times''Whitman, Alden"Sidney J. Weinberg, Known as 'Mr. Wall Street,' Is ...

, a banker at Goldman Sachs, and was born and grew up in the

Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

suburb of Scarsdale. He was educated at

Deerfield Academy Deerfield Academy is an elite coeducational preparatory school in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1797, it is one of the oldest secondary schools in the United States. It is a member of the Eight Schools Association, the Ten Schools Admis ...

. He graduated with an A.B. in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1948 after completing a senior thesis titled "Status and Functions of Corporate Directors." He then attended Harvard Business School. He had served as a lieutenant in the

U.S. Marines The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and was recalled for the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

Career

He joined Goldman Sachs in 1950 and rose to become a senior investment banker and chairman of the management committee, running the firm from 1976 to 1990. At Goldman, he resisted taking the firm public, and during his tenure, Goldman refused to work on hostile takeovers. He was a director of the

Seagram The Seagram Company Ltd. (which traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Originally a distiller of Canadian whisky based in Waterloo, Ontario, it was once (in the 1990s) the ...

drinks group, newspaper publisher

Knight-Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper bran ...

, and the chemical firm Du Pont. He was a trustee of Princeton and

New York-Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New ...

. He endowed the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

. He hired a man to keep his name and his firm's out of the press, and kept him off the full-time payroll (though he sat full-time at a desk in head office) so that if, improbably, a comment did slip out, it could be honestly dismissed as not coming from a Goldman Sachs employee.

Family and death

He died of complications following a fall at the age of 81. He and his wife Sue Ann Gotshal, daughter of Sylvan Gotshal (1897–1968), lived in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast, Greenwich is home to many hedge funds and other ...

, and had two children, and five grandchildren. His son followed family tradition with Goldman Sachs and was vice chairman from June 2006 to October 6, 2015. John L. Weineberg's son, John S. Weinberg joined Goldman in 1983, made partner in 1992, and then served as vice chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. from 2006 to 2015. He joined

Evercore Evercore Inc., formerly known as Evercore Partners, is a global independent investment banking advisory firm founded in 1995 by Roger Altman, David Offensend, and Austin Beutner. The firm has advised on over $4.7 trillion of merger, acquisition, a ...

in 2016, becoming their Chairman of the Board, in 2020, he became CEO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weinberg, John L. 1925 births 2006 deaths American corporate directors American investment bankers Jewish American military personnel United States Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II Businesspeople from New York (state) Chairmen of Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officers of Goldman Sachs Deerfield Academy alumni Harvard Business School alumni People from Scarsdale, New York Princeton University alumni United States Marines 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews