格雷格·莱姆库克是高盛的新手&A for Europe

Gregg Lemkau was always a bit of a geek, but he learned to hide it early. “He’d be reading a comic book or some light magazine, and inside it would be a textbook,” recalls former Dartmouth College head soccer coach Bobby Clark of the young Lemkau, who played goalie for a team that made it to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division I quarterfinals in 1990. Although Lemkau was studious, Clark adds, he competed hard and never stopped smiling.

Those qualities have served the father of four well. In September, Goldman Sachs Group named London-based Lemkau head of mergers and acquisitions for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. He previously co-led the technology, media and telecommunications division with George Lee; Anthony Noto has succeeded him in that role. Lemkau, 42, left the post on a high note: This year Goldman ranks first in the TMT sector, with $107.6 billion in deal volume through mid-October, according to Dealogic — a 39 percent jump over the whole of 2010, when the firm ranked sixth.

Among other 2011 deals, Lemkau has advised U.K. software maker Autonomy Corp. on its $11.7 billion takeover by Hewlett-Packard Co. and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners on its $8.5 billion sale of online phone service Skype to Microsoft Corp. In a fundraising effort for Palo Alto, California–based Facebook, he helped Mark Zuckerberg’s social network secure $1.5 billion.

Lemkau将他的工作描述为高度刺激。“每个人都有机会与这份工作互动的机会非常擅长他们所做的事情，”他说。“它有助于让你更好地掌握你所做的事情，建立伟大的体验，迫使你在你的比赛之上。”

That includes jawing with clients like Russian Internet tycoon Yuri Milner, an investor in Facebook and founder of Hong Kong–based DST Global, whom Lemkau advised on the $5.7 billion initial public offering of Mail.ru Group last year. “We had a very profound conversation about the trends and the space,” the billionaire says. “Gregg’s extremely professional and knowledgeable about the Internet.”

在达特茅斯，波士顿出生的Lemkau计划追求法律职业生涯。1991年毕业后，经济学和政府学位，他加入了一个领先的律师事务所，作为一个副律师律师国。但他的朋友们在银行业的生活中呼吁他更多，所以第二年他开始于高盛作为分析师。

In the mid-1990s, Lemkau moved to San Francisco, where he helped launch Goldman’s tech M&A business. Returning to New York when the dot-com bubble burst, he became co-head of the health care group. He also spent a year as COO of Goldman’s investment bank before moving to London in 2008 to co-head the TMT team with Lee, who works out of San Francisco.

Lemkau and Lee, who have been friends since they took the same associate training class in 1994, combined forces for the Facebook deal. First, Lemkau oversaw the creation of a special-purpose vehicle for Goldman and DST to invest in Facebook and give it a large capital infusion without an IPO. Next, Lee led the due diligence to support Facebook’s valuation. Then Goldman’s private wealth management division raised money for the SPV from its global clients.

The deal — $375 million came from Goldman itself — was a complex cross-border transaction that needed to be done quickly, quietly and efficiently, Lemkau says. That meant coordinating around the clock through holidays, across divisions and around the globe.

Besides cash in hand, Facebook got an impressive new $50 billion valuation. As the relationship banker, Lee played a critical role in justifying that figure and getting Goldman’s clients comfortable with it. Facebook had already attracted investors such as Microsoft in 2007 and DST predecessor Digital Sky Technologies in 2009, but at those times its value was $15 billion and $10 billion, respectively.

The deal upset non-Goldman investors who wanted in on Facebook too. But Lemkau says it was a far more opportunistic and efficient way for Zuckerberg and company to raise capital than an IPO.

Although M&A activity has stalled in recent months, Lemkau doesn’t think the dry spell will last, because of the cheap cost of capital and bargain valuations for potential takeover candidates. “But for one missing factor, we would be experiencing an M&A boom, and that missing factor is CEO and board confidence,” he says, adding that a more stable macroeconomy will bring business back. When that happens, Lemkau will be ready to follow the ball. • •