Chris Cole

Chris is Chairman and Co-Founder of Ardea, bringing over four decades of experience advising leading institutions and individuals across sectors and geographies, with a particular focus on financial services. He has also developed long-standing relationships with many SWFs and other large pools of capital, as well as with selected high net worth families. 

Prior to co-founding Ardea, Chris spent more than three decades at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he played a central role in building the firm’s global investment banking franchise. He served as Co-Head of Global Investment Banking from 2002 to 2006 and as Chairman or Co-Chairman of Investment Banking from 2006 to his retirement in 2015. Chris served on the Management Committee at Goldman from 2002 until his retirement. 

Chris holds a BA cum laude in History from Princeton University and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School. Beyond his professional career, Chris lives on a farm in New Jersey and serves on the Board of the Institute for Advanced Study and the Board of the Environmental Defense Fund. 

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