Ann Kaplan, an early female partner at Goldman Sachs, dies at 78

Ann Kaplan, a social worker, was deep into her studies for a Ph.D. in sociomedical sciences when fate intervened.

She accidentally left the voluminous notes for her dissertation in the back of a New York City taxi. Shock and disappointment eventually gave way to the realization that she hadn't been that happy on her career path, anyway.

Switching gears, Kaplan studied business, joined Goldman Sachs and rose through its municipal finance business to clinch Wall Street's most coveted brass ring — becoming a partner in 1990, among the first handful of women at Goldman ever to reach that rank.

Columbia University

She shared in the bounty of its 1999 initial public offering — a time when partners called "John" still outnumbered female partners — and left in 2003 to pursue philanthropy, academia and helping other successful women manage their wealth.

Kaplan died at a New York City hospital on Sept. 14 after a long illness, said her son, Andrew Fippinger. She was 78.

"Ann was one of the most talented partners at Goldman Sachs," said David Solomon, chief executive officer of the New York-based bank. "She was world-class in every way — here at Goldman, at her own firm and as a philanthropist. She was a great role model, mentor and friend to so many people, and her loss is deeply felt by all of us."

"She was a no-nonsense kind of person — I loved that about her," said Janet Hanson, who founded the influential Goldman alumnae network 85 Broads — a play on the address of the firm's previous head office.

Hired in 1977 and assigned to municipal finance, Kaplan was named a Goldman Sachs partner in 1990. That was the first year the firm welcomed women into partnership ranks since Jeanette Loeb became the first-ever female partner in 1986.

Reporting on Kaplan's promotion, The Bond Buyer said she had the distinction of being the firm's first female partner to rise from its municipal finance division. "It's taken a while for women to move up through the firm," she said. "But Goldman Sachs is now making women partners and will continue to make women partners."

About one in five partners are women now, a figure that the firm has said is not good enough and it's trying to improve.

Kaplan leaned into her status as an early female leader in finance. She was most recently a partner at Circle Wealth Management, a New York-based adviser serving affluent female entrepreneurs.

Female Focus

At Columbia University, where she taught and served on the board, she was a past chair of the Women Creating Change Leadership Council and helped launch an initiative designed to advance women's full and equal participation in society globally. She was a member of Belizean Grove, a club and support network for influential women, the New York Times reported in 2011.

"If there's a centerpiece of the story of my mom's life, it's about empowering women — through mentorship, primarily, but also through investments and philanthropic pursuits," her son, the dean of faculty at Horace Mann School in the Bronx, said in an interview.

Kaplan shared in the windfall as one of 221 partners when Goldman Sachs went public in 1999, with her stake worth more than $60 million after the offering, according to figures published by the Times in 2011.

Kaplan's advocacy for women made a "significant" impact at the firm, said Jacki Zehner, another in the select group of women who reached partner before Goldman Sachs went public. Kaplan made it "her mission to be visible to women across the division and not just her department," said Zehner, who now runs SheMoney, which seeks to help women achieve financial well-being.

Hank Paulson, who was Goldman's first chief executive following its IPO and later served as US Treasury secretary, called Kaplan "a real pioneer in investment banking. She was an outstanding professional and leader in municipal finance and a role model for all, representing the very best of the Goldman Sachs culture."

Chicago Native

Ann Frances Kaplan was born on Aug. 27, 1946, in Chicago, the first of four children. Her mother was the former Charlotte Larsen. Her father, Jerry Kaplan, was a college dropout who used seed money from an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer for whom he worked to open Free Press, an independent publisher of sociological texts.

The family moved to Westport, Connecticut, shortly before Ann's teenage years.

After earning a bachelor's degree in 1967 from Smith College in Massachusetts, she studied social work and got her master's from Columbia in 1972. She chose that line of work in part due to the influence of her father, a leftist intellectual who "would have, in her telling, looked down on business and finance," her son said.

Following her break from social work and sociomedical sciences, she earned a master's in business administration from Columbia in 1977. She went straight to Goldman Sachs and was made a vice president in 1981. Her area was municipal finance, and she began with a focus on hospitals, an outgrowth of her earlier experience.

She rose to become head of the municipal bond department. She also was active in the Bond Market Association — now part of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association — and led its municipal securities division.

In 1980 she married Robert Fippinger, a securities lawyer who later served as chief legal officer at the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. In addition to Andrew they had two more sons, Robert and Randy.

Second Act

In 2000, Kaplan stepped down as head of the Goldman Sachs municipal department to join its private wealth management unit, serving a clientele of highly successful women.

After leaving the firm in 2003, she founded Circle Financial Group, a wealth management membership organization. There, she and 11 other successful mid-career businesswomen would analyze the markets and debate strategy.

Being part of such a group "allows you to hear different opinions," Kaplan said in 2013, and she likened it to training for a marathon: "When it's organized, when you know you have to show up on a certain day, people tend to do it."

Maria Chrin, another ex-Goldmanite who was in that group, went on to open Circle Wealth Management, which today oversees about $12 billion in assets.

Kaplan was its first client and became a partner. "She was really interested in helping women understand their money and not just sign the papers their husbands handed them," her son said.

At her alma mater, Smith College, Kaplan's name is on the directorship of the Center for Women and Financial Independence.

"Ann was a trailblazer," said George Walker, the longtime CEO of Neuberger Berman who was a partner with Kaplan at Goldman Sachs. "She was kind, tough and had great wisdom, often bringing a different and broader perspective to bear."