Lord Browne steps down as Goldman Sachs board member

Lord Browne has resigned as a board member at Goldman Sachs in the wake of revelations that he lied to a British high court judge. The decision came a week after Lord Browne stepped down earlier than planned as chief executive of BP.

Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman chief executive, praised Lord Browne for his eight years of service as director, a period in which Goldman transformed itself from a private partnership to the most profitable publicly traded investment bank on Wall Street.

"Lord Browne has made an enormous contribution to Goldman Sachs and our culture of teamwork, excellence and client service. He has approached every issue with extraordinary business acumen and an absolute commitment to the firm's success," Mr Blankfein said.

"His ability to identify and deal with the important issues affecting our business and ourpeople has helped guide this institution since we became a public company.

"On behalf of the people of Goldman Sachs, I would like to thank Lord Browne for his service to the firm and our shareholders." It is understood that Goldman did not demand that Lord Browne step down from the board but did not disagree with his conclusion that he could no longer serve as a director.

Since November, Lord Browne has been chairman of the advisory board of Apax Partners, the private equity group.

Martin Halusa, Apax's chief executive, has said he expects Lord Browne to continue in that role. Observers always expected it would be far more difficult for Lord Browne to remain a director at a public company, especially one as prominent and protective of its reputation as Goldman Sachs.

Lord Browne stepped down from BP after court documents showed he lied to a UK judge about how he met Jeff Chevalier, his lover from 2002 to 2006.

Lord Browne was seeking an injunction from the judge to stop Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper printing his former lover's allegations of improper business conduct and details of their relationship. Lord Browne has apologised for the mis-statement to the judge, saying it was a product of his embarrassment and shock at the revelation of his relationship with Mr Chevalier.

- (Financial Times Service)