Goldman Sachs 2012 Annual Report Download - page 9

7Goldman Sachs 2012 Annual Report
We are pleased that Harvey Schwartz is our new
CFO. Harvey’s risk management judgment and broad
understanding of our businesses and our clients have
defined his career and will be the basis of his strengths
as an effective CFO.
In addition to David, we were pleased to announce two
additions to our Board of Directors, Mark Tucker and
Adebayo Ogunlesi.
Mark is the group chief executive and president of AIA
Group Limited, the world’s largest independent, publicly listed
pan-Asian life insurance group. Mark brings broad and deep
operating and strategic experience across Asia Pacific,
Europe and North America. He has nearly three decades
of leadership in the insurance and banking sectors and a
proven understanding of effective risk management.
Adebayo is the managing partner and chairman of Global
Infrastructure Partners, a private equity firm that invests
worldwide in infrastructure assets in the energy, transport,
and water and waste industry sectors. He brings over
20 years of experience in finance and the global capital
markets to our Board of Directors. He has advised companies
and institutions around the world and invested in many of
the most important sectors in the global economy.
We know that our Board, our shareholders and our people
will benefit from their strengths and perspectives.
Our People and Culture
The strength of our business has always been defined by
the quality of our people and our performance-driven culture.
Since the days of our founding, we have recognized that the
quality of our people differentiates the firm and will serve
as the cornerstone of our success. Over the past two years,
we have received nearly 300,000 applications. We hired
fewer than three percent of our applicants and nearly nine
out of 10 people accepted the offer to join Goldman Sachs.
We are proud to report that, in 2012, Goldman Sachs was
named one of Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to
Work For,” one of only 13 companies that have earned that
distinction each year since the list’s inception 16 years ago.
One example is the migration of our low-touch equities
flow to electronic processing. Of the flow that has moved
over, failed trades have declined by more than 95 percent.
We expect that, over time, all low-touch trades and a
significant amount of high-touch trades will be processed
digitally as well.
We also rely on technology to manage risk effectively.
While judgment remains paramount, the speed,
comprehensiveness and accuracy of information can
materially enhance or hinder effective risk decision making.
We mark to market approximately 6 million positions
every day. And, we rely on our systems to run stress
scenarios across multiple products and regions. In a single
day, our systems use roughly 1 million computing hours
for risk management calculations.
As a firm, our ability to adapt to regulatory change is
enhanced from having all of our positions represented on
one risk system, improving our efficiency and communication.
Not having to manage and integrate different systems
across our businesses will be critical to taking full advantage
of the move to standardization, which benefits our clients
and the financial system’s transparency and resiliency.
A Legacy and New Additions
to Our Board of Directors
After 32 years at Goldman Sachs and 12 years as chief
financial officer, David Viniar retired from the firm at the end
of January 2013. We are pleased that he has joined our
Board of Directors as a non-independent director.
David helped transform the firm’s risk control and operating
infrastructure from the time we were a private company
through a period of unprecedented market challenges
and regulatory change. David represents the very best of
Goldman Sachs, and will remain an example of rigor, work
ethic, collegiality and decency for many years to come.
We thank David for his remarkable service, and look forward
to continuing to benefit from his judgment and experience
as a member of our Board.