Jim O’Neill, Prominent Goldman Economist, to Retire

BY RANDALL SMITH

Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJim O’Neill is chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Jim O’Neill, the economist who a decade ago coined the term “BRICs” — the acronym for the emerging growth economies in Brazil, Russia, India and China — plans to retire from Goldman Sachs Group later this year, the firm announced on Tuesday.

Mr. O’Neill, 55, joined Goldman in 1995 as chief currency economist and co-head of global economics research, and became head of global economics, commodities and strategy research in 2001. In 2010, he became chairman of the firm’s asset management division.

Coining the term BRICs in 2001, he “challenged conventional economic thinking about emerging markets and, as a result, has had a significant economic and social impact,” Goldman’s chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, and president, Gary Cohn, said in a statement announcing the move.

His seminal piece, “Building Better Global Economic BRICs,” dated Nov. 30, 2001, predicted that the weight of BRICs, particularly China, would grow as a proportion of world economic output.

It preceded a decade in which stocks of emerging markets outperformed those of developed markets. In the 10 years ending December 2012, the Vanguard emerging markets stock index fund had annual returns of 16.2 percent, while the same firm’s developed markets index fund of non-United States stocks returned 8.4 percent annually.

Mr. O’Neill, based in London, was a frequent face of Goldman on CNBC and conferences. He worked at Bank of America and the Swiss Bank Corporation before joining Goldman. In a brief interview, he said he did not have any specific plans, but expected to continue working in some capacity.

His latest research piece on Monday asked the well-timed question “Are Things That Good?” on a day when the Dow Jones industrial average fell 129.71 points, its biggest drop in more than a month.

In the piece, Mr. O’Neill cited current concerns including that “some equity valuations are starting to not seem overly cheap,” as well as the threat of currency wars and the risk of rising bond yields.

A Goldman spokeswoman said the firm did not plan to name a successor chairman for Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which will continue to be led by both Tim O’Neill and Eric Lane.