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20 March 2012 – 26 March 2012
Issue 455
41770
CONTRACTING? TIME TO EARN MORE
INSIDE:
Paul Simon brings Graceland show to London | p3
London-based South African banker’s parting shot loses Wall Street firm billions
bank’s UK offices a year ago. In his letter Smith claimed, “The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say I identify with what it stands for.” “And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it,” he said. “I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride, or the belief.” The Stanford University economics graduate blamed the bank’s decline in moral fibre on its president Gary D Cohn and chief executive officer Lloyd C Blankfein. He believed this loss was the bank’s “single most serious threat to its long-run survival.” “It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their
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SA BANKER COSTS GOLDMAN SACHS $2 BN
by STAFF REPORTER GOLDMAN Sachs Group has seen $2.15bn of its market value wiped out after a midlevel executive, the Johannesburg-born Greg Smith, slammed CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s management and the firm’s treatment of clients. London-based Smith hit the news after publishing his open resignation letter in the New York Times last week, calling the Wall Street bank “morally bankrupt.” After Smith made the accusations, the shares dropped 3,4% in New York trading on Wednesday, the third-biggest decline in the 81-company Standard & Poor’s 500 financials index. Smith, who resigned as executive director and head of the firm’s US equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, had worked for Goldman Sachs for 12 years, starting as a summer intern. He joined the
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After quarter of a decade, Paul Simon brings Ladysmith Black Mambazo and his Graceland line-up to London for an incredible one-off show in Hyde Park.
WIN tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld live! p10 PROUD MOTHER: 36-year-old South African superstar Charlize Theron has adopted a baby boy named Jackson. The actress, who stars as the Evil Queen in an up-and-coming version of Snow White, was said to be a very proud mother. Read more at www.thesouthafrican.com/news
clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as ‘muppets’, sometimes over internal e-mail.” The bank, whose client list ranges from governments to major international companies, was quick to deny the accusations levelled by Smith, saying they were “disappointed” by his assertions. Smith’s letter has attracted a great deal of public comment, many
questioning why it took him so long to come to this realisation. But his former King David High School teacher has come to his defence. “He was a remarkable young man, exceptionally intelligent with an integrity that is probably unequalled,” Elliot Wolf, a retired headmaster said in an interview with Reuters. Wolf taught for 34 years at the private Jewish school Smith attended in Johannesburg ...continued on page 3
Jerry Seinfeld will be giving two rare live stand-up comedy performances in the UK this year and thanks to Live Nation we have tickets to give away to some very lucky readers.
SA Power 100: Reg Bamford | p13 As world croquet champion and CEO of 1st Contact & Sable Wealth, this Capetonian is a big hitter in the business realm.