Goldman, Lazard Look to Ex-Spies to Gain an Edge in Volatile World
Financial firms are deploying security pros to help navigate wars and a year packed with elections.
In the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 7, Jami Miscik awoke in her California home and flipped open her iPad to the shocking news of the Hamas attack on Israel. The Central Intelligence Agency veteran quickly rang up a pair of associates—a former leader of US Central Command and a former US Navy admiral—and crafted a response to the growing crisis, gaming various scenarios about a potential Israeli response and the broader effects it was likely to have.
The trio weren’t working for the CIA or any government agency. Instead, their advice was tailored for staff and clients of investment bank Lazard Inc. They soon provided online briefings for hundreds of the firm’s employees and prepared research outlining how the volatile situation might affect markets. “It was an immediate spring into action,” Miscik says. “It’s a baseline understanding, here are the things to watch: Does it expand? Does Hezbollah erupt? You come out of my line of work with honed instincts on what is really important and what is not.”