Lloyd Craig Blankfein (born September 20, 1954 in The Bronx, New York City) is the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of Goldman Sachs. After the May 31, 2006 nomination of former CEO Hank Paulson as Secretary of the Treasury, Blankfein was announced as his replacement.
Blankfein was raised in the Linden Houses, part of the New York City Housing Authority. His father was a clerk with the Postal Service in Manhattan. He received primary and secondary education in the public schools of the New York City Department of Education, and was a valedictorian at Thomas Jefferson High School in 1971. He attended Harvard College, where he lived in Winthrop House, and earned his A.B. in 1975, and in 1978 received a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Blankfein worked as a corporate tax lawyer for the law firm Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine. In 1981, he joined Goldman's commodities trading arm, J. Aron, as a gold bar and coin salesman.