According to Fool.com, Lucas van Praag is retiring from Goldman Sachs. Maybe that doesn't jump off the page at you. He's not the financial giant's CEO or CFO. Though he's undoubtedly paid very well, his name doesn't show up in Goldman's proxy filings where they disclose pay for their "named executive officers." But make no mistake -- van Praag has had one of the toughest jobs at Goldman over the past few years. For those still stumped, van Praag is -- until next month at least -- Goldman Sachs' head of public relations. And for many news outlets, the end of the van Praag era couldn't come soon enough.
Thanks to its position as a major investment bank during one of the worst financial crises the world has ever seen, van Praag had the unenviable task of defending the bank against withering criticisms and -- I'll keep this polite -- pointed characterizations. So how do you convince the world that your megabank employer isn't, in fact, the devil? For van Praag, a primary tactic seemed to be taking the nearest sharp stick and setting about poking every reporter in sight with it. And, I should add, doing said poking in a distinctly aristocratic manner.
Last year, New York magazine published a great compilation of some of van Praag's tastiest jabs, including these:
"There's speculation, and there is stupidity. This speculation transcends the simply stupid and takes it to an entirely new level ... giving credibility to tittle-tattle is pretty shoddy journalism."
"As prudent risk managers, we hedge our risk. To describe that activity as a cynical breaking of faith with clients is both misleading and horribly naïve."
"The speculation about compensation is ill-informed and, frankly, pretty stupid."
And regarding Rolling Stone's "Vampire Squid" story by Matt Taibbi: "[Taibbi's] story is an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories ... Notable ones missing are Goldman Sachs as the third shooter [in John F. Kennedy's assassination] and faking the first lunar landing."
If the idea was to build further on the view of Goldman as some sort of cross between the Freemasons and Skull and Bones, only richer, far more evil, and with more political clout, van Praag's approach has been genius….
Read all about it at http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/02/21/can-a-new-mouthpiece-make-goldman-sachs-less-evil.aspx
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