In 1978, only seven years after earning his Wharton MBA, Geoffrey Boisi became the youngest partner of Goldman, Sachs & Co. As Management Committee partner, the young banker became responsible for the firm’s worldwide investment banking activities. He then became co-founder, chairman, and CEO of The Beacon Group, LLC, a private equity and advisory firm headquartered in New York City.
Boisi made a celebrated deal in 2000 when he sold Beacon for $500 million to Chase Manhattan Bank, which soon merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. Boisi served as vice chairman of investment banking for the new JP Morgan Chase, envisioning a world of giant business enterprises—“corporate city-states,” he called them—and reconfiguring the company as a combination investment and commercial bank that would serve them with a leaner, more productive staff. In 2002 JP Morgan Chase suffered heavy losses in Enron, Global Crossings, and other bad investments that preceded Boisi’s arrival. The one-time wunderkind then shocked Wall Street with a sudden early retirement amid a management shake-up by Chairman and CEO William Harrison.
A bold and blunt-spoken leader, Boisi has thrown himself into charitable pursuits with characteristic vigor. A Knight of Malta and devout Catholic, Boisi serves as trustee for the Papal Foundation and Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises. In addition, Boisi is a co-founder and chair of The National Mentoring Partnership and is a director of Communities in Schools.
Throughout his career, he has continued his service to Wharton. Boisi served as co-chair with the late Mickey Tarnopol, W’58 (see p. 65), vice chairman of the Investment Banking Division of Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc, on Wharton’s Campaign for Sustained Leadership, helping the School surpass its original $350 million campaign goal to raise $445.7 million. He and Tarnopol were both honored with Wharton Dean’s Medals in 2003. Boisi currently serves on Wharton’s Board of Overseers.
