Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson Jr. (born March 28, 1946) is the United States Treasury Secretary and member of the International Monetary Fund Board of Governors. He previously served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs, one of the world's largest and most successful investment banks.
He was nominated by U.S. President George W. Bush to succeed John Snow as the Treasury Secretary on May 30, 2006. Secretary Paulson was officially sworn in at a ceremony held at the Treasury Department on the morning of July 10, 2006.

Career highlights
Paulson has been described as an avid nature lover.

Civic activities
On May 30, 2006, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow resigned. President Bush immediately nominated Paulson to head the Treasury department. On June 28, 2006, the United States Senate confirmed Paulson to serve in this position.
Paulson's three immediate predecessors as CEO of Goldman Sachs — Jon Corzine, Stephen Friedman, and Robert Rubin — each left the company to serve in government: Corzine as a U.S. Senator (later Governor of New Jersey), Friedman as chairman of the National Economic Council (later chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board), and Rubin as both chairman of the NEC and later Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton.

Treasury Secretary nomination
Paulson has quickly distinguished himself from his two Bush administration predecessors by listing the wide gap between the richest and poorest Americans as an issue on his list of the country's four major long-term economic issues to be addressed, highlighting the issue in one of his first public appearances as Secretary of Treasury.

Footnotes

Fortune Magazine: Hank Paulson's secret life
AP story: Paulson picks bird watching over golf
Derivatives Financier Henry Paulson Nominated To Head U.S. Treasury: Will His Derivatives Bubble Be An Economic Tsunami?