NAILING THE GLOBAL DEAL
George Van Amson does not speak Spanish. But he
is fluent in the heady language of finance. And his facility has
made the Goldman, Sachs & Co. senior international equities
trader a vital point guard in one of the world's hottest capital
markets: Latin America. In fact, last year Van Amson, 40, was
crucial to several of his firm's most significant international
transactions as changing economic and political forces made the
Latin American market a primary target for institutional and private
investors. The deals include Goldman Sachs' coordination of a
$2.2 billion global secondary offering for Telefonos de Mexico,
one of the largest international deals of the year.
Van Amson also was instrumental in an $863 million
global equity offering for Grupo Televisa, the second-largest
equity offering and the largest initial public offering ever for
a Mexican company. Last March, he participated in a stock issue
of 3.6 million shares for Sears, Roebuck and Co. of Mexico. The
result: Goldman Sachs ranks as the leader for underwriting Latin
American issues.
When English is the financial language of the
world, not speaking Spanish is a nonissue, says Van Amson, who
also specializes in trading Canadian and precious-metal stockworldwide.
The 10-yeartrading-floor veteran also disagrees with the notion
that traders are like gamblers. He says, "Trading requi res
extraordinary discipline; you need to be able to synthesize an
im - mense amount of information in a short time, and then make
a decision and be right more often than you're wrong. You also
have to understand a variety of cultures and customs. There's
a language to trading that doesn't necessarilytranslate from one
country to another."
The Bronx native understands how corporate cultures
differ. After graduating from Columbia University in 1974 with
an economics degree, Van Amson worked for an industrial company
and a bank before becoming an analyst in Goldman Sach's controller's
office. In 1980, he entered the Harvard Business School. Two years
later, he returned to Goldman Sachs after graduating from Harvard
with honors.
The complexity and volatility of international
trading attracted Van Amson immediately. "Staying at the
top of this field requires boldness and the ability to inspire
confidence, usually long-distance. You also have to be humble
enough to know when you're wrong and then change directions quickly,"
he says.
It is difficult for Van Amson to target precisely
when his career as an international trader at Goldman Sachs took
flight. "One year you're a new associate and you're asking
everyone what to do and then, one day you look up and there are
three new associates asking you what to do. It's hard to pinpoint
when that transition took place," he explains.
Clearly, Van Amson was right more often than not.
In 1986, he was promoted to vice president, and in 1989 he became
leader of an emerging market group. Having survived the downsizing
that followed the Wall Street crash and with Latin America booming,
Van Amson's career is climbing. An unexpected event could send
his Latin accounts off course. But, says Van Amson, "That's
what makes it so exciting."
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