Nearly three years after leaving J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s executive suite, Geoffrey Boisi, is plotting a Wall Street comeback, The Post has learned.
Boisi, the former top Goldman Sachs & Co. executive who had headed the investment-banking division at J.P. Morgan Chase until he was nudged out by Chief Executive William Harrison in 2002, is drawing up plans to launch a new merchant banking operation in the next several months, sources familiar with the matter said.
The specialty boutique is still in its inception stage, and exact details are unclear. However, sources said the firm will be based in New York and will likely focus on the financial-services sector.
The firm also is planning to raise a leveraged buyout fund to chase deals in financial services-related industries.
The move would appear to be a case of deja vu for Boisi – a former Goldman heavyweight who decided to hang up his own shingle, forming Beacon Group in 1993, after leaving an illustrious career at the firm that spanned more than two decades.
In forming Beacon, now part of J.P. Morgan, Boisi brought together a group of former Goldman bankers.
Now, more than a decade later, he may reunite some of the old gang again. Among those already set to join him is former Goldman banker and Beacon colleague, Richard Herbst.
Herbst did not return calls seeking comment and Boisi could not be reached for comment.
During his 22 years at Goldman, Boisi rose through the ranks to assume such leadership roles as mergers head, global finance chief and head of investment banking.
In 1991, Boisi – then the No. 3 executive at Goldman and a potential heir-apparent to run the firm -suddenly retired from Goldman at the age of 44 amid speculation he was pushed aside.
Throughout most of the 1990s, Beacon – whose roster of well-regarded partners included former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen and David Coulter, the former chairman of BankAmerica Corp. – chugged along in relative obscurity, and Boisi appeared content to remain below Wall Street’s radar screen. The investment and advisory partnership built a name for itself by specializing in niche investments in industries like energy and natural resources.
But in 2000, the respected dealmaker was given yet another shot at running a big-league investment bank when Chase Manhattan Corp. acquired his boutique, shortly before it merged with J.P. Morgan.
Boisi – who was brought in by Harrison to revive the sleepy investment bank – was once viewed as his likely successor.
But just two years later, Boisi was unceremoniously shown the door after Harrison decided he was creating dissension rather than unity at the firm, sources said at the time.