Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein sailed through the company’s annual shareholder meeting yesterday, despite a slew of recent blowups for the banking giant, including a former exec who blasted the firm’s culture as “toxic and destructive.”
Blankfein appeared relaxed and even cracked jokes at the meeting, which was mostly free of rowdy protesters both inside and out. He traded jabs with Sister Barbara Aires of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, telling the nun she sounded like a Goldman executive when she pressed him for info.
“I don’t think we can outbid your current boss,” Blankfein quipped when she asked him if he would hire her.
One of the Goldman shareholders who did attack was WalmartFreeNYC, which blasted the bank for naming Michele Burns as its audit committee chair even though she was on Walmart’s board in 2005 and 2006 when the company was covering up a bribery scandal in Mexico.
“Walmart is fully committed to an investigation,” Burns responded.