Hank Paulson, appointed co-chairman and co-chief executive (to serve alongside Jon Corzine) of Goldman Sachs in June, is known for being intensely hard-working - although he says he has never prided himself on trying to work more hours a day than anyone else. A committed and active conservationist (along with his wife), he also likes to spend his holidays in the wild outdoors.
This summer, though, as he helps prepare the firm for the flotation expected in the autumn, he has had to limit himself to the odd long weekend fishing on the Florida Keys, while focusing more of his energy than ever before on banking.
His latest promotion - he was president and chief operating officer - does not, he says, change his job a great deal. "It's sort of a natural extension. We've had a history around here of shared leadership." But he admits that, while he is not one to worry, it is "an awesome responsibility".
Paulson is in favour of the flotation. "Listen, this is clearly the right thing for Goldman Sachs. The partnership is something we were all very attached to and it's not a decision we made easily."
Earlier this year he headed Goldman's business strategy committee to discuss the way forward. The firm's ownership structure was, it seems, a secondary consideration. "We decided strategy should come before structure," says Paulson. "We came out of this process saying that we don't want to be a financial conglomerate. Size of itself is not a measure of anything that's particularly noteworthy. We have though got huge opportunities for growth in our key areas: advisory, underwriting, trading and merchant banking, and in order to succeed we're going to have to grow. Longer term, to insure that we continue our preeminence we decided that we should match our capital structure to strategy. And given our strategy of organic growth, we decided it would be more prudent to have permanent capital. There are no acquisitions we want to rush out and make, but over time we would also enhance our position if we had an acquisition currency. Plus we liked the opportunity of having equity ownership throughout the company and we could push ownership deeper."
He adds: "We're determined to go public in a way that preserves and reinforces the best elements of our culture, the spirit of partnership and the way in which we work together."
Henry M Paulson Jnr grew up on a farm just outside Chicago, spending much of his childhood riding, fishing, camping, canoeing and birdwatching. His father owned a wholesale jewellery business. An enthusiastic wrestler at high school, the young Paulson went on to become a member of the Ivy League Championship-winning football team at Dartmouth College. He gained a good degree in English literature, followed by an MBA at Harvard.
At that time he was considering a number of different careers. "Strange as it may seem, I'd actually considered being an English professor," he remembers. Instead, in 1970, he went to work at the Pentagon where he found he liked "problem-solving, projects and finance".
When the Lockheed Corporation went under and the government bailed it out, Paulson got to know some people over in the White House. He transferred in April 1972 to work under President Nixon on domestic policy, dealing with topics related to tax and economics, and liaising with the treasury and commerce departments.
This was the era of Watergate and in the second half of 1973 things slowed down. Paulson grew disillusioned. "I interviewed very very broadly," he recalls. "When I picked Goldman Sachs they weren't close to being the premier firm in the industry, but I'd learned that almost as important as what you do is who you do it with."
Among those he met at Goldman were Stephen Friedman, later to become chairman, and Jim Gorter who became head of the Chicago office. "The people I met were all quite outstanding and I felt very comfortable with them," recalls Paulson. "Also, I did not think I wanted to live in New York, and it was quite clear that I could have an outstanding career working in Goldman's Chicago office."
After a year in New York learning the business, Paulson joined the Chicago office of Goldman Sachs in 1974. Stephen Friedman recalls seeing Paulson early on as an "exceptional talent". "He was very bright, very intense. He sopped up information. He had a gift for picking top talent in each specialist area to work with on different projects."
Paulson was particularly good at cultivating client relationships with mid-west companies. The late 1970s was an important marketing period for Goldman Sachs. Hostile raids were just beginning, and Paulson and Friedman made many trips together to talk to companies.
Paulson became a partner of Goldman Sachs in 1982, and head of investment banking services for the mid-West in 1983, making him the most prominent investment banker in the region. Meanwhile, he had the opportunity to run a strategy committee looking at opportunities for Goldman Sachs around the world.
He was made managing partner of the Chicago office in 1988, and in 1990 went on the management committee and became co-head of the investment-banking division, as well as taking on responsibility for corporate and real-estate banking. He finally moved to New York in 1994 to assume the position of president and chief operating officer, working closely with chairman Corzine.
Paulson admits to being "quite direct, bordering on the blunt". But says: "I believe I'm always very respectful, that I'm substantive - I like to understand the issues - and I'm a delegator."
Colleagues describe Paulson as "very bright" with a "very healthy ego". "He is very comfortable with himself," says one. "He's not a guy with an ounce of insecurity. But he's not arrogant. He's very open minded to other people's ideas. He has the gift of being very willing to listen to other people and saying 'You're idea's better than mine so I'll move to yours or modify my thinking' and I think that's one reason why people are happy to work for him. The last thing in the world he is is a pushover, but he is not intellectually dictatorial."Philip Eade