BIOGRAPHY
Bob Downey joined Goldman Sachs in 1969. He was made a general partner in 1976 and head of the Municipal Bond Division in 1980. Mr. Downey was also responsible for Goldman’s Washington, D.C. office until becoming a limited partner in the early ’90s. He still holds the honorary title of Senior Director with the firm, but has not been active with Goldman since before the firm went public in 1999.
During his more than 40 years in investment banking, Mr. Downey was instrumental in the creation of numerous financing techniques. He was ranked the best Leader of Public Finance for the “Ultimate Firm” (an all-star team made up of industry leading specialists from various investment banking firms) in a survey by Investment Dealer’s Digest. He was selected as the Outstanding Municipal Industry Person by the Municipal Forum, and received the Bond Market Association Municipal Division’s Honor Roll Award. He also was Vice Chairman of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, and a former board member of the Public Securities Association.
Mr. Downey served as the 1990 Chairman of the Securities Industry Association, the primary trade group of the nation’s brokerage and investment banking firms, having been Vice Chairman in 1988 and 1989. During the 1980s and early ’90s, Mr. Downey led the nation’s investment banking firms’ efforts to prevent the evisceration by Federal banking regulators of those provisions of the Banking Act of 1933 which separated investment banking from commercial banking and deposit taking. Unfortunately, such provisions were severely weakened by such banking regulators over the years, and the provisions themselves were eventually repealed by Congress in 1999. Those provisions of the Banking Act of 1933 which created Federal Deposit Insurance were not repealed.
In light of the financial disaster of 2008 which resulted in the Federal government’s bailout of numerous commercial banks, Mr. Downey became active in banking reform efforts once again. In 2012 he founded Better Banking Law, an organization whose purpose is to foster federal legislation that would prevent commercial banks, which benefit from Federal Deposit Insurance, from engaging in the more risky and speculative activities of investment banks. Though he has immense affection and respect for Goldman Sachs, (an investment bank founded in 1869 which became a bank holding company in 2008), its leadership and the integrity of its people, Better Banking Law reflects Mr. Downey’s personal views only.
Mr. Downey served as a Director of Financial Security Assurance Holdings, Ltd., a major bond insurance company, from 1994 until 2009. He serves as a Trustee of Northwell Health and is a member of the Executive Committee of Lenox Hill Hospital in NYC. He served as a Director of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, RI for 14 years and is a former Trustee of The Keystone Center, The Taft School, The Spence School and Westover School, and was the former Chairman of the Blue Light Theater. Mr. Downey is also deeply involved with his alma mater, Dartmouth College, and serves as a member of Dartmouth’s President’s Leadership Council.
