There will be few people who don't know who Carlos Cordeiro is, and for his competitors at other investment banks they may be relieved to hear that the workaholic Goldman Sachs banker and current Asian vice-chairman is to retire. It will be the end of a stellar career with the firm he joined in 1990, and of which he became a partner in 1992.
Cordeiro initially forged his career with Goldman in Europe, where he built up the firm's senior debt capital markets relationships. He forged close relationships with borrowers like the World Bank and also brought South Africa to the capital markets for the first time in 1994.
In 1996 he was sent...