John L. Thornton, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a former Goldman Sachs executive, has been named chairman of the asset management firm PineBridge Investments.
Mr. Thornton, who retired as Goldman’s co-president in 2003, succeeds E. Mervyn Davies, a former leader of the British bank Standard Chartered, who has been chairman of PineBridge for four years.
PineBridge, with about $71 billion in assets under management as of Sept. 30, is majority owned by the Pacific Century Group, the investment firm run by the Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li. It was formerly the asset management arm of the American International Group, which sold it to Pacific Century in 2010.
In Mr. Thornton, PineBridge has attracted a banker once viewed as Goldman’s heir apparent. He joined Goldman in 1980 and made his name by bringing an aggressive deal-making style to London. By the time Goldman sold stock to the public in 1999, Mr. Thornton, along with John A. Thain, was designated as a possible successor to Henry M. Paulson Jr., the chief executive at the time.
But Mr. Thornton left Goldman when it appeared Mr. Paulson would remain in his job for several more years. He took a professorship at Tsinghua University with plans to commute regularly from his home in New York. Today, he is also director of global leadership at the university.
Mr. Thornton, who is 60, graduated from Harvard and holds a degree in jurisprudence from Oxford University and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Management. He is co-chairman of the board of trustees of the Brookings Institution in Washington and is chairman of the Barrick Gold Corporation.
“I am honored to be joining PineBridge Investments and look forward to working with the leadership of the firm,” Mr. Thornton said in a statement. “PineBridge’s developed and emerging markets experience is exceptional as is its ability to create unique investment solutions for clients.”