As the financial crisis built to a crescendo in 2008, the board of Goldman Sachs decided it was time for something they didn’t yet have after nine years as a listed company: a chief risk officer (CRO). They didn’t need to look too hard, because someone was already doing the job in all but name. After his appointment as chief credit officer in 1999, Craig Broderick had subsequently taken on responsibility for overseeing market and operational risks as well.
“Craig had been the CRO for years – everyone knew it, and everyone relied on him to do it; we just didn’t have anyone with that title,” says David Viniar, who was chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs from 1999 to 2013. Both Viniar and Sarah Smith, who is today Goldman’s chief compliance officer, and was chief controller and accounting officer during Broderick’s time as CRO, say Broderick had made the job his own thanks to a talent for “looking around corners”.
The three of them were the senior participants at a meeting that took place in December 2006 – and which has since entered into Wall Street legend. As alarms started blinking in the market for…
