The Museum of American Finance honored the achievements of three financial leaders at its annual Gala on March 5. Byron D. Trott received the Whitehead Award for Distinguished Public Service and Financial Leadership and was introduced by Henry M. Paulson, Jr. David G. Booth was recognized with the Financial Innovation Award and was introduced by Senator William( Bill) W. Bradley. Mary Ellen Stanek was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award and was introduced by Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan. Excerpts from the remarks delivered that evening are published below.

HENRY M. PAULSON, JR.

74th US Treasury Secretary and Chairman of the Paulson Institute

The Whitehead Award carries real significance for me. When I joined Goldman Sachs in 1974, it was to work in a group which John Whitehead created called the New Business Department. It revolutionized the industry because it was our job to compete aggressively for new business by calling on other banks’ clients. Believe it or not, this was a big deal then. And it catapulted Goldman Sachs to leadership in the industry. And it was something that I really loved.

John Whitehead emphasized the need to always put the client’ s interest first. He saw trust and integrity were the foundation of an investment banker’ s success; he knew that success in the private sector carries a real obligation to the broader society. He encouraged us to set up our own philanthropic trusts, to get involved personally and to give generously. John had a highly distinguished public service career after Goldman Sachs. His standards were not just professional standards, but life standards. He served as a role model for many of us who worked with him. Byron Trott lives and breathes John Whitehead’ s values.

John Whitehead looked like a patrician, just like Byron does, but he was a telephone lineman’ s son. And Byron also has a modest background coming from rural Missouri, but both rose to the very height of global finance. Now, Byron has built a unique financial institution— one that punches way above its weight with a

differentiating strategy. A firm like BDT & MSD, benefitting the lives of many by supporting businesses and helping them grow, is a gift to society.

I first met Byron in 1988 [ when ] I was running an investment banking unit in Chicago. One of my Midwestern investment bankers, who wasn’ t particularly outstanding and certainly wasn’ t very creative, kept coming up with really interesting investment opportunities. So one day I asked,“ Where are these coming from?” And he said they were coming from a private wealth management professional in St. Louis.

I invited Byron to meet with me in Chicago, and he enthusiastically made the switch to investment banking. Now, several years later, I called Warren Buffett to tell him I was replacing the New York banker who was covering Berkshire Hathaway with Byron Trott. And Warren, who’ s always very polite, was very unhappy with me because he liked the other guy professionally. So I told Warren I was going to come to Omaha to introduce him to Byron and that he would be thanking me before too long, and boy did he thank me. Byron became Warren’ s investment banker.

Now, before Byron arrived, Goldman Sachs had very mixed results in working with family business owners and with founders. Byron recognized early on that founders and family business owners needed a different kind of advice. And I gave Byron lots of freedom. And I tell you, he banged up against all the structures and organization we had at Goldman Sachs. He took that freedom and he ran with it. And he carved out a business within Goldman Sachs focused on serving founders and family businesses. These were smart, savvy people who needed a smart, savvy advisor. These founders and family business owners were not looking for products. They were looking for judgment that they could rely on for decades as they made generational decisions.

When I left Goldman Sachs to become Treasury Secretary in 2006, Byron had created a big business for Goldman Sachs serving this market, but Byron had an entrepreneurial itch. I remember him telling me that where he came from, you weren’ t successful unless you had your own business. Now, I tried to persuade him otherwise. Fortunately, he didn’ t leave when I was there. But in 2009, he left Goldman Sachs to set out on his own, starting with a five-person team and a very prominent client named Warren Buffett. Byron began building his firm. When I left government and returned to Chicago, I shared an office with Byron, so I had a ringside seat as he created BDT Capital. I enjoyed attending his family business roundtables, marveling at his growing client list— one that included many of the very most prominent founders and family business owners. What made the BDT model so powerful and attractive is that it combined advice with equity capital so it could offer its clients capital with an aligned interest, or it offered them an opportunity to co-invest with BDT if they participated in the BDT Private Equity Fund.

This model allowed BDT to expand its capabilities while building an impeccable reputation. And Byron had a spotless reputation. And so, in 2003, BDT merged with Michael Dell’ s Merchant Bank, MSD. Michael is, of course, one of the most

28 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Spring / Summer 2026 | www. MoAF. org