Ask Michael Byungju Kim about his formative experience as an investment banker and his mind jumps back to New York almost 12 years ago. He had just joined Goldman Sachs out of college and was watching while a senior partner flicked through his pitchbook. "The partner had red braces, a guy at his feet shining his shoes, and was talking to a client on the phone. Meanwhile he was making red marks all over my pitch and punching holes in my analysis and finding holes in my argument," recalls Kim.
"I thought, in 10 years I want to be that guy." Minus the red braces and the shoe-shiner, he is. The new chief operating officer for Salomon Smith Barney's Asian investment-banking activities showed his juggling prowess during the interview for this profile. As well as grabbing a quick lunch, he managed to slip out for a five-minute briefing with Salomon Smith Barney boss James Dimon, go and say hello to a couple of clients in a pitch, and meet a prospective hire for his mergers and acquisitions team. All without being rude.
His schedule is hectic. "I'm doing the COO job from a plane right now," he says.