THE PITCH OF A PARTNER

Innovation is the lifeblood of all emerging businesses, and a great new idea can shift a promising career into high gear. "That's because, says Garland Wood, "when you have a new product, you have no competition." Twenty years ago when Goldman, Sachs & Co. was looking for an edge to win lucrative public finance business, Wood met that challenge.

Early in his career as a Goldman Sachs associate, Wood distinguished himself by creating several strategies in advanced refunding, where clients could convert out standing bonds from high interest rates to low interest rates. Wood likens the methods he developed to refinancing a home mortgage, but his strategies were highly quantitative and far more complex.

By the mid-1970s, Wood's refunding strategies were used throughout Wall Street. But before they gained a following, he lured several new clients to Goldman Sachs, using his new products as a carrot. One recruit was the Louisville Water Co. in Kentucky, which remains a client of his today.

Goldman Sachs' first and only African-American partner says that he has built his career over the last two decades by spending an enormous amount of energy in generating business and executing deals. As a veteran in the industry, Wood now focuses on pitching prospective clients. "This is a 24-hour business," Wood explains in a telephone interview from California, where he is talking with the heads of a number of the state's transit authorities looking to raise money through bond issues. "Every day I'm out of the office making contacts, calling on clients or client prospects, pitching the various services we provide," he adds.

Wood came to Goldman Sachs from Columbia University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in economics and an MBA. When Wood first joined the Municipal Finance Department at Goldman Sachs, it had about 10 professionals. Today, the department is more than 10 times that size.

In 1976, he was promoted to vice president, and 10 years later he became a partner. Although he admits to having been "a significant contributor" to several notable transactions over the years--most recently for a Southern California transit agency for which Goldman Sachs lead-managed a bond issue worth about $300 million--the Texas-born banker insists there are no major coups, no grand successes, no magical, pivotal moments he can pinpoint along his career path. "You're running with a very elite and talented crowd, so there aren't many things that you can claim as your own," says Wood, falling in line with Goldman Sachs' resistance to distinguish any one member from its creme de la creme crowd.

"[However,] there are, of course, times when your friendship with or knowledge of someone and their business puts you over the top," he admits. "But with most clients, you have to earn their business every day. In many cases, you do a transaction and when it's over, that business is gone. But that's what makes it fun. You never know exactly what the next challenge is going to be."

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