Bailout architect from Treasury heads up Goldman's Asset Management

Remember October 2008? When Paulson, and his cronies put together the TARP?

BusinessWeek:
Now comes the hard part: getting the Mother of All Buyout Funds up and running.

Treasury officials have made clear they want to do that as soon as possible, and have told congressional leaders and Wall Street executives that they will conduct the first auction to buy assets within four weeks. The work needed to accomplish that is well under way, by a team of Treasury officials led by Ed Forst, a Goldman Sachs (GS) alumnus who left the firm this summer to become a senior administrator at Harvard University. In late September, Paulson asked him to come to Treasury to work on the bailout program. Forst, who is on a temporary contract, began to outline the plans for implementation even as Congress wrangled over the details.

Today he's heading up Goldman Sachs Asset Management--with their $822 billion.

Look at the Goldman memo mentioning his promotion. Is the stint at Treasury even mentioned? (He's pointing the finger at Paulson in the photo above)

February 12, 2010
Edward C. Forst to Co-Head Investment Management Division

We are pleased to announce that Edward C. Forst, currently our senior strategy officer and member of the Management Committee and Business Practices Committee, will become co-head of the Investment Management Division (IMD). Ed, together with Tim O’Neill, will lead our efforts to grow Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Private Wealth Management businesses, which are among the largest in the world.

Ed has been the senior strategy officer since rejoining the firm in 2009 after serving for one year as Harvard University’s first executive vice president and principal operating officer. Before that, Ed was head of IMD. (not a mention of his consultant job at Treasury!)

Ed joined the firm in 1994 in Capital Markets of which he subsequently became co-head. He served as chief of staff to both the Equities and Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC) divisions and also served as the co-head of the Global Credit businesses in FICC. Ed joined the Management Committee in 2004. From 2004 to 2007, he was the firm’s chief administrative officer, based in New York and London, and co-headed, with David Viniar, Operations, Technology, Finance and Services. Ed is a former chairman of both the Firmwide Capital Committee and the Business Practices Committee.

Ed became a managing director in 1996 and a partner in 1998.

Please join us in congratulating Ed and wishing him continued success in his new role.

Lloyd C. Blankfein
Gary D. Cohn