Photograph by Larry Fink
"First of all, I like to work," says Jon S. Corzine, in his new office on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, explaining why he took the job as chief executive officer and chairman at a little-known derivatives trading firm called MF Global (MF). "Second, I have generally worked in large institutions where I didn't have the same entrepreneurial opportunity that MF provides. It may not be a startup, but if you have a long-term view of building a competitive financial institution of excellence, this is an extraordinary vehicle to try and get at that opportunity. It's in the part of the world that I have some experience and knowledge of, so I don't feel uncomfortable.…" Corzine pauses, then adds, "A little dated, but we'll get caught up."
Two of the last three jobs Corzine held did not end well for him. As chairman of Goldman Sachs (GS) in the late 1990s he lost a power struggle with his co-CEO, Henry Paulson. He rebounded with a successful, self-financed bid for the U.S. Senate from New Jersey and quickly established himself as a major Democratic rainmaker before leaving to run for governor. Helping the state dig out of a fiscal hole was to be his legacy, but budget problems only deepened in a bitter first term, and he lost last November, tripped up by Republican challenger Chris Christie.
Now Corzine, 63, is trying to steady his career by remaking MF Global. The 3,200-strong firm, recently beset by a trading scandal and bad luck, specializes in options and futures, which Allan Zavarro, the former global head of futures trading for ABN Amro Bank, describes as "a bastard stepchild. It's a coup for MF to get a guy of that quality who wants the job."
Corzine received a signing bonus of $1.5 million and will get the same amount in annual salary, with a bonus target of $3 million. For a man who left Goldman Sachs with a fortune estimated at over $400 million and then spent $134 million of it on politics, money matters, as does the opportunity to play the savior and redefine his legacy. "He clearly wants to be remembered for something other than a frustrating time in New Jersey politics," says Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, a former ally of Corzine's.
Corzine started as a bond trader at Goldman in 1975. The work ethic he learned on his father's 120-acre farm in Willey Station, Ill., helped push him to the front of his class, and by 1985 he was co-head of the fixed-income desk at the firm and was made partner. At his 25-year high school reunion, he ran into William Summer, a friend since grade school. "I remember asking him if he did a lot of traveling, and I asked him if he learned any languages," says Summer, a San Diego-based financial executive. "He said he spoke the language of money, and that's all he needed."
Even as he climbed the ladder at Goldman, Corzine distinguished himself as friendly and unassuming. "Everybody wants to be Jon's friend," says Barry L. Zubrow, chief risk officer at JPMorgan Chase (JPM), who was chief administrative officer at Goldman and served in Corzine's Trenton administration. "He has a unique ability to make everyone feel like they are his best friend." Among those he got along with well was current Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Corzine was "absolutely part of Blankfein's meteoric rise" within the company, says Janet Hanson, a former co-head of money-market sales in New York at Goldman.
When Corzine ascended to chairman in 1994, Goldman was in the throes of a panic the likes of which it has rarely experienced in its 141-year history. That spring the firm had suffered a $300 million trading loss, and when Chairman Stephen Friedman left, more than 30 partners departed as well.
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