Lloyd Blankfein

Lloyd Craig Blankfein was born in the Bronx borough of New York City to a low-income Jewish family on September 20, 1954. His father, Seymour Blankfein, was a clerk with the U.S. Postal Service branch in Manhattan and his mother was a receptionist. He was raised in the Linden Houses, a housing project in the East New York section of Brooklyn. He received primary and secondary education in New York City's public schools graduating valedictorian at Thomas Jefferson High School in 1971. He went on to attend Harvard College where he lived in Winthrop House and graduated with a B.A. in history in 1975. After graduating college, he attended Harvard Law School where he received a J.D. degree in 1978.

Blankfein first worked for the law firms Proskauer Rose and then Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine. In 1982, he joined the commodities trading firm J. Aron & Co. as a precious metals salesman in its London office, after J. Aron was acquired by the investment bank, Goldman Sachs.

Wealth tax

Blankfein opposes a wealth tax on billionaires. In 2019, while criticizing Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax, he alluded to her claimed Native American heritage, saying "Maybe tribalism is just in her DNA." Under her wealth tax proposal, Blankfein would have owed more than $30 million per year in taxes on his estimated $1.1 billion wealth.

Blankfein who earned $24 million from Goldman Sachs in 2018 criticized the notion that CEOs are overpaid. In 2019, he said he felt a "lack of appreciation" in society for Wall Streeters.

DEI initiatives

In 2026, Blankfein said DEI programs which were previously employed at Goldman Sachs were "counterproductive".

From 2000 to 2009, Blankfein personally donated $11 million (4.58% of his total compensation) to charitable organizations. His joint charity foundation, the Lloyd and Laura Blankfein Foundation, donated $620,000 to Harvard Law School, $500,000 to the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, $50,000 to Barnard College, $46,500 to the Robin Hood Foundation, and $10,000 to Carnegie Hall in fiscal year 2010.

Blankfein formerly served on the board of directors of the Partnership for New York City and currently serves on the board of overseers of the Weill Cornell Medical College.

Blankfein has self-identified as "a registered Democrat, and a Rockefeller Republican... conservative on fiscal issues and more liberal on social issues". Blankfein donated $4,600 to Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton in 2007, and to the Senate re-election campaigns for the Republicans Rob Portman and Roy Blunt in 2015. On July 18, 2012 after meeting with Barack Obama's chief of staff, Jack Lew, he was asked whether he had any aspiration to go into government like predecessors Hank Paulson and Robert Rubin. "I have aspirations to be desired," he replied.

During the 2016 presidential election, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders named Blankfein as an example of corporate greed in January 2016. Blankfein responded that Sanders' campaign had "the potential to be a dangerous moment." Blankfein endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, citing her willingness to be bipartisan, in the run-up for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Social issues

He is a supporter of gay marriage and has been a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group for LGBTQ civil rights.

In April 2022, Blankfein argued that revoking Disney's special status, enshrined in the Reedy Creek Improvement Act, due to the company objecting to Governor Ron DeSantis' view on Florida House Bill 1557 represents a form of government retaliation for "exercising free speech." He also said it is a "bad look for a conservative."