Hank Paulson Jr. is no everyday Wall Street banker.
The chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs addressed more than 400 students in the Huntsman Hall auditorium. So many students attended that some were forced to watch a closed-circuit broadcast of the lecture in an adjacent room due to the turnout.
Paulson discussed his rising career, which has kept him away from the battlefields of Vietnam, sent him to China 68 times since 1990 and landed him at the helm of one of the world's leading investment banks.
The crowd, composed mostly of Wharton MBA students, also listened intently as Paulson discussed plans for his firm's growth and his views on China's rising role in the marketplace. Many attendees took avid notes of his advice and stories from the professional world.
"It's important I understand where leadership ideas are and where they're headed," second-year MBA student Alli Myatt said.
After a brief speech from the podium, Paulson sat down with Wharton Dean Patrick Harker. The pair had an open discussion as the crowd listened from their seats or spots in the aisle. After stating Goldman Sachs' $23 billion in revenue in 2004, Paulson noted the importance his firm places on "hiring and retaining the best people" in order to maintain a "culture of excellence."
As important as doing "something you enjoy and do well" is doing it "with people you enjoy" Paulson advised the job-seekers in the audience. For him and his firm, this involves "getting the right people in the right seats" on any particular transaction or project.
Paulson also took time to note how vastly different a climate he was speaking in now as compared to his prior visit in 2002. Paulson described a "grim mood in the room" from his prior visit, saying his "heart went out" to the students in the crowd as the economy was in recession and job opportunities were drying up. This crowd, which grabbed all the event tickets within two hours of their release, is searching for jobs in a time Paulson described as "quite optimistic."
Paulson also discussed the strong relationship his firm has with Penn, saying that more people were hired from the University to work at Goldman Sachs in 2004 than from any other school in the country. Saying that 103 partners and managing directors at Goldman Sachs are Penn alumni, Paulson expressed that the "future leaders" of his firm were in the crowd.
The implications of job offerings did not fall on deaf ears.
Wharton junior Amol Shah said his quest for a summer banking internship had brought him to Paulson's presentation, in order to get "talking tips" and "learn more about the firm."
Paulson summed up a career that finds him running a 20,000-person company with offices in more than 20 countries by emphasizing that he merely followed his interests.
"I did the things I enjoyed doing, and it just worked out for me," Paulson said.
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