Speakers at the Hilton included House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican senators Tim Scott and Marco Rubio, Democratic Senator Chris Coons, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and business titans Tyler Perry, Richard Branson, Michael Bloomberg, and Warren Buffett. Buffett and Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, are co-chairs on the program’s advisory council.
The next day, small business owners fanned out across Capitol Hill, visiting local representatives wearing light-and-dark-blue striped soccer scarves emblazoned with Goldman’s name.
Brand’s Standing
“Red tape has been increasing, financing has been hard to come by -- these are all things that have gotten worse and worse in the country,” Goldman Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein said in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the summit. “You have to make things easier and better for small business people. Then the economy grows.”
The bank’s army found willing listeners. Alumni hail from more than 370 Congressional districts, all 50 states, the nation’s capital and Puerto Rico. State and federal officials, some of whom have recommended candidates for the program, attend locally held graduation ceremonies. Last week, the House Small Business Committee called a hearing to discuss Goldman Sachs’s small-business research.
Yet by some measures, the firm has a ways to go in turning public opinion. Goldman Sachs was the world’s 25th most valuable bank brand in 2017, according to Brand Finance, a London-based consultant. While that’s an improvement from a 28th-place ranking in 2013, it’s worse than its 7th-place ranking in 2010.
That doesn’t mean the firm considers it a failure. As Senator Scott stepped off the stage last week, John Rogers, a chief architect of the program as Goldman’s head of government and public affairs, was there to greet him in a corridor decorated with portraits of U.S. presidents and their wives. He flashed the lawmaker a wide grin, and a vigorous thumbs up.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.