Elisha Wiesel

Elisha Wiesel (born June 6, 1972) is an American businessman. He worked for Goldman Sachs for a quarter of a century, serving as its Chief Information Officer for three years, until December 2019. He is the only child of Holocaust survivor, author, professor, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel.

Elisha Wiesel
Born
Shlomo Elisha Wiesel

(1972-06-06) June 6, 1972
Alma materYale University (B.S., Computer Science 1994)
Known forChief Information Officer of Goldman Sachs
Spouse(s)Lynn Bartner-Wiesel
Children2
Parent(s)Elie Wiesel
Marion Erster Rose Wiesel

Early and personal life

Elisha Wiesel was born June 6, 1972.[1] He was named Shlomo Elisha, after his paternal grandfather, Shlomo, who died at age 50 after a death march to the Buchenwald concentration camp.[2] At his bris, the rabbi said: "A name has returned."[3]

His father, Elie Wiesel, was a Holocaust survivor, author, professor, activist, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient of Hungarian Jewish and Romanian Jewish descent, whose hometown was Sighet, Romania.[1][4][2] His mother, Marion Erster Rose Wiesel, is a Holocaust survivor born in Vienna, Austria, of Austrian Jewish descent, and translator.[5][6][7][8] His paternal grandmother and his father's younger sister were killed in the gas chambers in the Auschwitz concentration camp.[2]

He was raised on the Upper West Side and Upper East Side in Manhattan in New York City, attending Modern Orthodox yeshiva Ramaz on the Upper East Side, and suburban New Jersey.[2][9][6] When he was six years old, Wiesel and his family lived in Israel for a few months.[10] His parents spoke French at home.[6] As a teenager he moved from computer programming of computer games to electric guitar, interested in heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Metallica, but also in the punk band The Ramones.[11][6]

Wiesel then attended Yale University, graduating with a B.S. in computer science in 1994.[10][2] At one point in his freshman year he sported a purple mohawk haircut.[11][1][12] After graduating from Yale, he spent a few months doing basic military training in Israel.[10]

Wiesel and his wife Lynn Bartner-Wiesel have two children: a son, Elijah, and a daughter, Shira.[10][2]

Career

Wiesel joined the J. Aron commodities division of Goldman Sachs in 1994, after the head of J. Aron strats (the code-writers whose computer models and algorithms power the firm's trading desks) convinced him to give up his initial preference of working in the video game industry.[13][14][1][4][15] At the time, technology was in its earliest days in banking.[16] At Goldman he worked for Lloyd Blankfein and Gary Cohn, who ended up leading the firm.[17] One day Blankfein criticized him in the lobby of Goldman's headquarters as he arrived on rollerblades, saying: "I’m invested in that head, get a helmet!"[17]

He became a managing director in 2002, and a partner in 2004.[18][19] Wiesel later served as the Chief Risk Officer of its securities division (which houses Goldman's technology-intensive trading business), and global head of its securities division desk strategists.[1][4][20]

In January 2017, when he was 44 years old, he succeeded R. Martin Chavez as Goldman's chief information officer, overseeing Engineering (the firm's Technology Division and global strategists groups).[13][21][14] Wiesel became the highest-ranked of 9,000 Goldman engineers, who accounted for 25% of the firm's total employees.[15] In July 2017, Institutional Investor named him # 10 in the "2017 Tech 40."[15]

In December 2019 Wiesel left Goldman Sachs after a 25-year career at the firm.[1][4][2] As he considers his next move, he said he was interested in the intersection of philanthropy and engineering and was ready to move on from banking. He was considering options that included traveling the world, computer games, and teaching, while intrigued by the health care company that Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Jamie Dimon were building, and committed to spending more time working on matters relating to his father such as deciding on the disposition of his papers.[17] He volunteered on Michael Bloomberg's presidential campaign and began an archive of his father's writings. He became a board member of the Zioness organization. [22]

Philanthropy

Wiesel organized fundraisers for Good Shepherd Services, a Brooklyn-based after-school program charity that provides support for at-risk youths and their families, at Goldman beginning in 2013.[1][23][24] He also became well-known for organizing the popular all-night Midnight Madness problem-solving scavenger hunt throughout New York City, popular among Wall Street professionals.[10] It has raised millions of dollars for charitable non-profits.[17][25][26][24][27][28][29]

Political activity

At a November 30, 2016, event at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Wiesel spoke of the need to protect the LGBT community and Israel, which he said was "treated as the world villain simply for making sure that Jews will never again be without a home," and criticized president-elect Donald Trump's policies.[30] At another event held at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on January 29, 2017, he suggested that protesting against Executive Order 13769 ("Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States") was part of his father's legacy.[31]

In April 2017, in a speech to the March of the Living program at Auschwitz for Holocaust Remembrance Day, he said that the United States and European countries had not learned the lessons of the Holocaust, because many in those countries had turned away Syrian refugees fleeing chemical warfare. Wiesel added: "Will you stand by when African-Americans have reason to be terrified of a routine traffic stop, when Christians are slaughtered in Egypt because they are labelled infidels, when girls in Chad, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are threatened, raped, or shot for pursuing an education, when homosexuality in Iran is a crime that carries the death penalty?"[32][33][34]

References
  1. Popper, Nathaniel (January 9, 2017). "Goldman Sachs Names Elisha Wiesel Chief Information Officer". The New York Times. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  2. Lewak, Doree (January 25, 2020). "Elie Wiesel's son recalls dad, 75 years after Auschwitz liberation". The New York Post. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  3. Samuel G. Freedman (October 23, 1983). "Bearing Witness," The New York Times.
  4. Crowe, Portia (January 9, 2017). "Goldman Sachs just named a new head of its giant tech division". Business Insider. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  5. Levine, Daniel S. (July 3, 2016). "Marion Wiesel, Elie's Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  6. Shawn Macomber (April 4, 2018). "People of the Mosh: Elie Wiesel's Son Elisha On Metal Misfits, Hardcore Matinees & Forging Identity in the Punk Underground". Decibel Magazine. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  7. "Marion Wiesel". Central Synagogue. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
  8. Mary Ellen Snodgrass (2008). Beating the Odds: A Teen Guide to 75 Superstars Who Overcame Adversity. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  9. Joseph Berger (October 15, 1986). "Man In The News; Witness To Evil: Eliezer Weisel". The New York Times. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  10. Lyman, Rick (May 12, 2017). "Elie Wiesel's Only Son Steps Up to His Father's Legacy". The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
  11. Christina DesMarais (July 14, 2017). "How Important Is a Dress Code? Goldman Sachs Will Find Out". Inc. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  12. "Elisha Wiesel Remembers His Father". Moment. September 14, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  13. Liz Hoffman (January 10, 2017). "Goldman Sachs names new tech chief," Financial News.
  14. "Careers Blog - In Conversation with Elisha Wiesel, Chief Information Officer". Goldman Sachs. November 19, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  15. "The 2017 Tech 40: Elisha Wiesel". Institutional Investor. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  16. Laura Noonan (September 4, 2019). "Goldman Sachs braced for more top-level changes," The Financial Times.
  17. Amanda L Gordon (September 12, 2019). "Goldman's Wiesel Exits as Bank Turns to Amazon for Tech Leader". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  18. Samson, Adam (January 9, 2017). "Elisha Wiesel tapped to become Goldman's tech chief". Financial Times. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  19. Oran, Olivia (January 9, 2017). "Goldman names Elisha Wiesel as new chief information officer". Reuters. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  20. Liz Hoffman (January 10, 2017). "Goldman Sachs Names New Tech Guru," The Wall Street Journal.
  21. Dakin Campbell (January 9, 2017). "Goldman Promotes Elisha Wiesel to Chief Information Officer". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  22. September 2, Melissa Weiss; 2020 (2020-09-02). "Elisha Wiesel's next chapter". Jewish Insider. Retrieved 2020-09-06.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. Robbins, Liz (October 11, 2013). "One Long Night in Puzzle City". The New York Times. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
  24. "HHREC Annual Dinner to Feature Elisha Wiesel," The Jewish Link, October 18, 2018.
  25. Davis, Owen (January 9, 2017). "Goldman's New CIO Is Pretty Much Impervious To Snark". Dealbreaker. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  26. Olivia Oran (January 9, 2017). "Goldman names Elisha Wiesel as new chief information officer," Reuters.
  27. Susanna Kim (June 28, 2013). "Goldman Sachs' 'Madness' Scavenger Hunt Accepting Applications at $50K+ Per Team," ABC News.
  28. Salmon, Felix (June 28, 2013). "How a Goldman Sachs scavenger hunt is like a private equity deal". Reuters. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  29. Seth Porges (August 14, 2015). "For One Long Night, Manhattan Was Turned Into A Massive Game For Hundreds Of Finance Workers". Forbes. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  30. "Elie Wiesel's son excoriates Trump rhetoric, calls for political reconciliation". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. December 1, 2016. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
  31. Gordon, Amanda L. (January 30, 2017). "Elisha Wiesel Reflects on Immigrant Ban and Father's Legacy". Bloomberg. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
  32. Naomi Zeveloff (April 25, 2017). "Elie Wiesel's Son; Holocaust Lessons Unheeded in Syria Disaster," The Forward.
  33. Elisha Wiesel (April 24, 2017). "Elisha Wiesel’s speech urges Jews not to be silent observers of injustice," The Canadian Jewish News
  34. Elisha Wiesel (April 25, 2017). "My father was a witness, and now I will be a witness (op-ed)," Ynet.
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