Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein has announced he has a “highly curable” form of lymphoma and will work through his chemotherapy over the next few months in New York.
In a message addressed to clients and shareholders on the US investment bank’s website, the banker said he had received a series of tests after several weeks of not feeling well.
Blankfein said: “Fortunately, my form of lymphoma is highly curable and my doctors’ and my own expectation is that I will be cured.”
His doctors have advised him that during chemotherapy he will be able to work “substantially as normal”. He will, however, reduce some of his travel during that time. He has discussed this with the bank’s board and said the directors were supportive.
At the helm of Goldman Sachs since 2006, Blankfein steered the bank through the financial crisis. He concluded his message by saying: “There are many people who are dealing with cancer every day. I draw on their experiences as I begin my own. I have a lot of energy and I’m anxious to begin the treatment.”
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, the biggest US bank, stayed in the job while undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatment for throat cancer last year.
Dimon told Vanity Fair in an interview that he scheduled his radiation treatments for seven o’clock in the morning, when there were few other patients. He was fitted with a mask and bolted to a table so he would not move, and also had six full days of chemotherapy. He lost 35 pounds. “It was hard to eat. Your throat hurts, you have no appetite.” Last December he was told he was cancer-free although his doctors will give him the all-clear once three years have passed.
