David Viniar
David Alan Viniar | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1955 |
| Occupation | Corporate executive |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Known for | CFO and executive vice president at Goldman Sachs (1999–2013) |
David Alan Viniar is an American corporate executive who held the positions of CFO and executive vice president at Goldman Sachs from 1999 until January 31, 2013. He currently serves as a member of Goldman Sachs' board of directors.
Biography
Viniar completed his secondary education at The Bronx High School of Science in 1972. He graduated from Union College, New York in 1976 with a degree in economics. Subsequently, he obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1980.
Following his MBA, Viniar began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he has remained throughout. He was promoted to partner in 1992, advanced to managing director in 1996, and was appointed CFO and executive vice president in 1999. Since December 2002, he has overseen the Operations, Technology, Finance, and Services Division.
His professional responsibilities have included leading the Finance Division and co-managing credit risk and firmwide risk between 2001 and 2002; co-heading operations, finance, and resources from 1999 to 2001; serving as CFO of Goldman Sachs Group, L.P. between March and May 1999; acting as deputy CFO from 1998 to 1999; heading finance from 1994 to 1998; directing treasury from 1992 to 1994; and earlier involvement in Structured Finance within investment banking.
In September 2012, Viniar declared his intention to retire from Goldman Sachs effective January 2013. Upon stepping down as CFO and executive vice president on January 31, 2013, he transitioned into a director position at the firm.
On October 30, 2013, Viniar joined the board of Square, Inc., a mobile payments enterprise led by Jack Dorsey.
"25 standard deviations" remark
On August 13, 2007, The Financial Times covered Viniar's explanation for the significant losses experienced by two major Goldman Sachs hedge funds, which saw their value drop by more than 25% within a single week, prompting a $3 billion capital infusion. Viniar described the situation as involving a sequence of extraordinary occurrences: "We were witnessing events that represented 25 standard deviation shifts, occurring repeatedly over several days." This comment underscores the dangers of depending on financial models predicated on Normality. Kay & King (2020) identify this as the 'Viniar problem,' illustrating the error of equating probabilities derived from models with actual real-world probabilities and highlighting the inherent uncertainty in model reliability.
Senate testimony
On April 27, 2010, Viniar appeared before the United States Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to discuss the involvement of investment banks, with a focus on Goldman Sachs, in the 2008 financial crisis.
Affiliations
Viniar has held a position on the board of trustees at Union College and currently serves as a trustee for both Children's Aid and Family Services and the Financial Accounting Foundation.
Family
He is married and has four children.