The steel magnate CEO of ArcelorMittal, Lakshmi Mittal, joined the board of American business bank Goldman Sachs as an independent director, the company announced Sunday.
Aged 58, the Indian-born Mittal joined the investment bank's audit, compensation and corporate governance and nominating committees, the bank said. Mittal became Goldman's tenth independent director on its 13-member board.
"Lakshmi's experience judgment and independent thinking represent an important addition to our board of directors, and will be of tremendous value to our people, our shareholders and our clients," Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's chairman and chief executive officer, said.Mittal is a longtime client of Goldman Sachs, and the Wall Street bank was alongside him in the battle for taking over the European steel company Arcelor for $33.5 billion to create the world's biggest steel maker in 2006.
High profile Manager
Goldman Sachs was seduced by Mittal’s high profile manager whose merits have been praised many a times in recent years.
Goldman Sachs like other investment banks, have stepped up investments in India to profit from an economy whose growth in the first quarter of this year was second only to China. Goldman bought a minority stake in the biggest sports utility vehicle maker in the country, Mahindra & Mahindra in May and invested $50 million in the Indian engineering company Sterling & Wilson in June.
Goldman was the second-biggest financial advisor in Asia, including India, in the first half of 2008 after UBS, according to Thomson Reuters data.
