Gary Cohn

Gary Cohn was born to an Eastern European Jewish family,[10][11] the son of Victor and Ellen Cohn,[12] and was raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio. His father was an electrician who later became a real estate developer.[13] Cohn was diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age, and attended four schools by the time he reached the sixth grade.[14] Cohn's childhood experiences with dyslexia were a featured case study in David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell.[15] Cohn studied at Gilmour Academy, and attended American University's Kogod School of Business, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration in 1982.

Cohn at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in 2010

Cohn started his career at the U.S. Steel home products division in Cleveland, Ohio.[16] After a few months, he left U.S. Steel and became an options dealer in the New York Mercantile Exchange.[16] He taught himself the basics of options by reading about it in the days between meeting the hiring manager and joining the New York Mercantile Exchange.[17]

Cohn was hired by Goldman Sachs in 1990 and became a partner at the firm in 1994.[18] In 1996, he was named head of the commodities department, and in 2002, he was named the head of the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities (FICC) division. In 2003, he was named co-head of Equities, and in January 2004, Cohn was named the co-head of global securities businesses.[19] He became president and Co-Chief Operating Officer, and director in June 2006.[20] While at Goldman Sachs, Cohn was also a member of the firm's board of directors and Chairman of the Firmwide Client and Business Standards Committee.[4]

In 2010, Cohn testified to Congress on the role of Goldman Sachs in the financial crisis of 2007–2008.[21] Cohn testified: "During the two years of the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs lost $1.2 billion in its residential mortgage-related business. We did not 'bet against our clients', and the numbers underscore this fact."[22]

On January 5, 2021, Cohn was appointed Vice Chairman of IBM's board of directors.[23][7]

On January 20, 2017, Cohn took office as Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) in President Donald Trump's administration, a position which did not require Congressional confirmation. By February 11, 2017, The Wall Street Journal described Cohn as an "economic-policy powerhouse",[24][25] and The New York Times called him Trump's "go-to figure on matters related to jobs, business, and growth".[26] With the confirmation of Trump's nominee for Secretary of Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, pending in the Senate, Cohn filled in the "personnel vacuum" and pushed "ahead on taxes, infrastructure, financial regulation, and replacing health-care law".[24] In addition to his $285 million Goldman Sachs severance package,[27] Cohn also sold a stake in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest bank (as of 2017), then valued at $16 million.[28]

Vice President Mike Pence, Gary Cohn, and Steve Mnuchin watch tax reform vote.[29]

Cohn supports reinstating the Glass-Steagall legislation, which would separate commercial and investment banking.[30][31]

Under the Trump administration, Cohn was cited by the press as a supporter of globalism, and was given nicknames such as "Globalist Gary" and "Carbon Tax Cohn".[32] Along with Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Dina Powell, they were referred to by opponents as the "Wall Street-wing" of the Trump administration.[32] He was stated as being at odds with the populist faction that was led by Steve Bannon, when Bannon was White House Chief Strategist.[32][33]

Cohn led the Trump administration's efforts to pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. In a 2019 article in The Wall Street Journal, Cohn pointed to an increase of $6,000 in real disposable personal income per household, as well as the creation of seven million jobs, as evidence of the success of tax reform.[34]

Cohn reportedly considered resigning from the National Economic Council after the 2017 Charlottesville rally[35] and criticized the Trump administration's response to the rally, stating "I believe this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning," white supremacists.[36] In August 2020, Jim Sciutto published a book called The Madman Theory in which Cohn said in response to Donald Trump saying that there were very good people on both sides of the protests which included white supremacists, "Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK."[37]

On March 6, 2018, Cohn announced his intention to resign; the announcement followed Trump's proposal to impose import tariffs on steel and aluminum, and Trump's cancellation of a meeting with end-users of steel and aluminum that Cohn had arranged in an attempt to dissuade the president from the planned tariffs.[38] He was replaced by Larry Kudlow[39] on April 2.[40]

Bob Woodward's 2018 book, Fear: Trump in the White House relates two instances in which Cohn removed draft letters from President Trump's desk, so that the President would not see them.[41] One of the letters would have canceled a key trade agreement with South Korea, and the other would have withdrawn the US unilaterally from the NAFTA trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.[42][43]

Following his departure from the White House, Cohn became an advisor and venture capital investor for companies in the cybersecurity, blockchain, and digital payments sectors. He currently serves on the Board of Spring Labs, a startup using blockchain technology to share consumer credit data,[44] and Hoyos Integrity, a company employing biometric blockchain technology for secure communications and mobile payments.[45] Cohn is also a key advisor for Machine Zone[46] and Abryx, a biomaterial science company.[47] At Hoyos Integrity, Cohn is deeply involved in the strategy and rollout of a next-generation secure mobile phone aimed at government and corporate customers. The company is also planning to launch a digital wallet — which employs more sophisticated biometrics — that consumers can use to make payments using a wide range of monetary assets, including bitcoin. The wallet will also be insured up to $1 million if hacked and will adhere to strict Know Your Client (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) regulations.[48] The underlying technology of Hoyos' digital wallet and FIPS was born out of military-grade digital secure vault technologies. Unlike traditional digital wallets, it is designed to provide significant privacy protections to consumers as it does not mine their data, performs unique biometrics-based identity authentication on every transaction, and holds any digital fiat or cryptocurrency. The Hoyos wallet platform underwent stringent testing by U.S. government security contractors and in an international hackathon contest, and was not breached.[49]

In April 2020, Cohn was appointed to the Risk & Governance Advisory Board of Starling, and technology company in applied behavior sciences.[50]

In August 2020, Cohn and investor Clifton S. Robbins launched Cohn Robbins Holdings Corp.[51]

In 2019, Cohn served as a visiting fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School[52] where he taught a seminar alongside former U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp on economic, demographic, and national security policy.[53] Cohn and Heitkamp focused on structural economic and demographic issues. Spring 2019 Fellows at the Institute included Mayor Andrew Gillum, Rep. Carlos Curbelo, and Mayor Mitch Landrieu.[54]

While at Harvard, Cohn was the lead sponsor for the Road to 2092: Save Social Security, the first policy hackathon organized by the Harvard Institute of Politics.[55] The competition featured over 250 students from 28 universities; the winning team presented their policy brief at the U.S. Capitol, the White House, and was also featured on MSNBC.[56]

Cohn is married to Lisa Pevaroff-Cohn.[57][58] They have three daughters, and reside in New York City.[12][16]

• Appearances on C-SPAN