| Mario Draghi | ||||||
Politics, business and academia are not short of committees. Standing committees, sitting committees, even audit committees. In some cases, notably the latter in the light of the Enron scandal, their functions are far from clear.
But Mario Draghi, 55-year-old economics professor and former director-general of the Italian treasury who has joined Goldman Sachs as a managing director, is joining a committee that may be novel even to someone with his extensive knowledge of them.
Besides being responsible for European strategy and global business development, Draghi will also serve on the “commitments committee”. What on earth can such a body actually do, apart from making commitments?
The dictionary definition of a commitment is “something that takes up time or energy”. So why add the committee bit? Talk about tautology.
But, if anyone can handle the role, it should be the professor. The range of committees and super-committees that Draghi has served on over the years is impressive.
During his 10 years as head of the Italian treasury he also served as chairman of the European Union’s economic and financial committee, Ecofin. From 1993, he also chaired the Italian committee for privatizations.
Previously as adviser to the Bank of Italy, the former professor at Florence university even chaired the committee that drafted financial legislation – resulting in what came to be called the Draghi Law.
Civil servants love a good committee but Italians go a step further. At the height of Italy’s overseas borrowing binge, for instance, the treasury’s head of international funding rejoiced in the title “coordinator of the council of experts”.
Whatever Draghi’s role, Goldman’s catch is a coup. He is highly rated in financial circles and several financial institutions had been vying to snap him up.
At the treasury he presided over the country’s privatization programme – in which Goldman landed its fair share of lucrative mandates – and masterminded the lira’s entry into the euro.
Under his leadership the treasury was an astute user of the capital markets.
Heaven knows how much money Goldman and others made out of Italian convergence – or the fees that the investment banks gleaned from Italy as a client. But it is good to see that Draghi is getting his chance to shine on the sell-side.
