{"id":8955,"date":"2012-03-15T15:13:01","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T13:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/safrican-goldman-banker-always-stuck-to-principles\/"},"modified":"2012-03-15T15:13:01","modified_gmt":"2012-03-15T13:13:01","slug":"safrican-goldman-banker-always-stuck-to-principles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/safrican-goldman-banker-always-stuck-to-principles\/","title":{"rendered":"SAfrican Goldman banker always stuck to principles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By David Dolan and Pascal Fletcher<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG, March 15<\/span> (Reuters) – Greg Smith was a
\nprincipled and competitive student, the kind of person whose
\nstrong sense of right and wrong probably pushed him to resign
\nfrom Goldman Sachs in a scathing letter to an international
\nnewspaper, his former teacher and coach said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A quiet, unassuming child, the South African first attended
\nthe private Jewish King David’s High School in suburban
\nJohannesburg before winning a scholarship to Stanford University
\nin the United States.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith then joined Goldman Sachs, a workplace he once loved
\nbut described in his resignation letter in the New York Times on
\nWednesday as having developed an environment “as toxic and
\ndestructive as I have ever seen it”.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“He was a remarkable young man, exceptionally intelligent
\nwith an integrity that is probably unequalled,” Elliot Wolf, the
\nschool’s retired headmaster, told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“An absolutely remarkable man with high principles. He was
\nan asset to the school in every possible way.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Wolf, who is now retired after 34 years at the school
\nincluding 28 as headmaster, said he remembered Smith well from
\nteaching him Latin and that he was loved by all because he was
\npolite, unassuming and decent.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Goldman Sachs banker sat a total of eight exams in his
\nfinal year of secondary school in 1996, winning a distinction in
\nevery subject, Wolf said. According to school records, Smith’s
\nsubjects included maths, advanced maths, Hebrew, English,
\nAfrikaans and accounting.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“He was a wonderful young man with the highest principles.
\nThat was already part of his character when he was very, very
\nyoung,” Wolf said.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Dolan and Pascal Fletcher JOHANNESBURG, March 15 (Reuters) – Greg Smith was a principled and competitive student, the kind of person whose strong sense of right and wrong probably pushed him to resign from Goldman Sachs in a scathing letter to an international newspaper, his former teacher and coach said. A quiet, unassuming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}