Who

Along with Gene Sykes, Levy is co-chairman of Goldman Sachs' global mergers and acquisitions group. He's one of the top M&A bankers on the Street.

Backstory

Prior to joining Goldman in 2000, Levy spent 22 years at Merrill Lynch, rising to become global head of mergers in 1989. Levy almost single-handedly turned Merrill into an M&A player in the '90s, landing the firm near the top of league tables thanks to deals like Norfolk Southern's $10.3 billion acquisition of Conrail and British Petroleum's $53 billion merger with Amoco. In 2000, he was tapped by Hank Paulson to join Goldman as co-head of the M&A group. (Levy told Fortune that one of the reasons he joined Goldman was because he had long marveled at the firm's "mysterious force.") He's since helped Goldman remain the world's leader in merger advisory business. In 2006, the company advised on $1.09 trillion in deals, a 28.6 percent market share; in 2007, it advised on 492 deals worth $1.41 trillion. Levy works under Lloyd Blankfein, the firm's CEO, co-presidents Gary Cohn and Jon Winkelried, and John Weinberg, co-head of investment banking and vice chair.

Of note

Since arriving at Goldman, Levy has worked on Proctor & Gamble's $57 billion acquisition of Gillette, the 2006 acquisition of BellSouth by AT&T, and Federated's acquisition of May Department Stores in 2005. More recent deals have included Royal Bank of Scotland's $95 billion acquisition of ABN Amro, the $48 billion LBO of BCE, and KKR and TPG Capital's $44 billion takeover of the Texas-based power company TXU. New York-based Levy typically works with companies in the consumer and retail space; very low-key Sykes—who attended Stanford business school just like Levy—is based in LA and is particularly well-regarded for his tech and telecom expertise. Both rainmakers stepped away from day-to-day management of the group in 2004. These days the department is overseen by London-based banker Gordon Dyal, the firm's global head of M&A, and Tim Ingrassia, who heads up mergers and acquisitions in the U.S.

Personal

Jack is married to Frances Levy. In 2002, the couple paid $15 million for Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos's eighth-floor co-op at 820 Fifth Avenue, the building that is also home to art dealer Bill Acquavella and aged elderly heiress Jayne Wrightsman. The Levys also have a home in East Hampton.