Henry Paulson, Jr.

Henry Merritt Paulson, Jr. was United States Secretary of the Treasury from July of 2006 until January of 2009. A graduate of Dartmouth University (1968) and Harvard Business School (1970), Paulson spent most of his career with the Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs. He joined the firm in 1974, after a brief stint working for John Ehrlichman in the Richard Nixon administration. Paulson worked his way up to CEO of Goldman Sachs in 1999 and became a multimillionaire along the way. Known for his determination (his nickname as a football player at Dartmouth was "Hank the Hammer"), Paulson also is known for his love of animals and nature; he was chairman of the board of the Nature Conservancy from 2004-06. He was named to the Treasury post by President George W. Bush. Paulson became the international man of the hour during the Wall Street mortgage crises of 2008, when he topped headlines for his initial plan to direct $700 billion of taxpayer funds to shore up failing financial giants. When President Barack Obama took office, Paulson was replaced as Treasury Secretary by Timothy Geithner.