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A boom in Goldman partners in Asia

Goldman nominates a record number of partners from the Asia region. Who are the happy individuals?
Goldman Sachs has named its new partner MDs, and Asia has done particularly well in this year's process, which saw 115 new partners named globally. In what is probably a reflection of the growth in the region's profit contribution, the firm nominated 26 partners from Asia (including Japan). This meant that Asia got 22% of the new partners, even though its share of global headcount is only 14%.

This year's new partners included Asian FIG head, Douglas Feagin, who has spent much of his time working on the Bank of China IPO, and Goldman's investment in ICBC - which are two of Goldman's most lucrative deals of 2006. The head of Hong Kong investment banking, Ron Lee, was also named, as was newly appointed co-president of Goldman Sachs Singapore, Tim Leissner. Gene Reilly, who joined from Deutsche Bank three years to run algorithmic trading was also named partner as was Allan Marson, who runs the commodities trading business out of Singapore.

David Ryan in equity sales was also named partner, as was Asia chief of staff, Matthew Fremont-Smith and senior China banker and oil and gas specialist, Jin Yong Cai. Also promoted to partner was Tom Morrow, one of the most senior members of the equities division, and so too were head of technology, Mary Byron, and Andrew Wolff, a member of PIA (principal investment area), who was heavily involved in the ICBC investment - in which Goldman is looking at a paper profit of over $4.5 billion. And from the highly profitable Asian Special Situations Group - the part of the business that made so much money on the Jinro transaction last year - Jason Brown also made partner.

Interestingly enough - considering the long-held perception that Goldman is less focused on research - there were four senior equity research analysts named as partners too. These were Asia strategist, Timothy Moe; Asia banks analyst, Roy Ramos; the head of Japan financial institutions research, David Atkinson; and the director of Japan research, Kunihiko Shiohara, who also has a coverage focus on automobiles.

The announcement almost doubles the number of partners working in Asia.

The US firm also named 47 new managing directors in Asia (including Japan).
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