Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. named Thomas Montag to succeed Gary Cohn as head of trading in the Americas, the largest unit at Wall Street's most-profitable firm.

Montag, Goldman's co-president in Japan since 2001, will move to its New York headquarters from Tokyo by the end of the year, according to a company memo confirmed by spokesman Michael DuVally. Cohn, 46, had been overseeing trading together with Montag, 49, Michael Evans in Asia and Michael Sherwood in London. Cohn was promoted to co-president in June, creating the vacancy.

Goldman's revenue from equities, fixed-income, currencies and commodities trading rose to $17 billion in the first nine months of the latest fiscal year, dwarfing the $4.3 billion contribution from investment banking and $3.4 billion from asset management. Trading accounts for almost two-thirds of the firm's total revenue.

``Goldman has been a trendsetter in Japan by investing a lot of resources in new businesses before anyone else does,'' said Izumi Nishizaki, president of Tokyo-based advisory firm Pinnacle Inc. and former Japan investment-banking head at UBS AG.

The decision to bring Montag back to the U.S. after seven years in Asia reflects a shift of power under Goldman's new chief executive officer, Lloyd Blankfein, who co-signed the memo. Since replacing Henry Paulson in June, Blankfein, 52, has reassigned seven of the 23 members of Goldman's management committee.

Profitable in Japan

Jon Winkelried, 47, became a co-president with Cohn; John Weinberg, 49, gained the title of vice chairman; and Richard Gnodde, 46, was named co-head of Goldman Sachs International in London with Sherwood, 41. Evans remains a co-head of trading based in Hong Kong.

Montag and Masanori Mochida, 51, his co-president in Japan, helped Goldman become the nation's most-profitable overseas securities firm, with investments in golf courses, hot springs, beauty salons and real estate. Montag looked after the trading divisions in Japan, while Mochida oversaw investment banking.

Goldman, which opened its Tokyo office in 1974, earned 37.3 billion yen ($312 million) in Japan in the year ended March 31, up from 22.2 billion yen a year earlier and 12.6 billion yen the year before that.

The firm has invested about 900 billion yen in Japanese property since 1997. It sold shares in Japan Hotel & Resort Inc., a real estate trust, to the public in February and plans an initial share sale of Accordia Golf Co. on Nov. 1.

Asia Shake-Up

Blankfein also shook up Goldman's management in Asia outside Japan. Last week, Richard Ong was promoted to run the firm's investment-banking venture in China, the world's fastest-growing major economy. Ong replaced Bill Wicker as co-head of Asian investment banking outside Japan. Wicker will rejoin the bank's natural-resources group in New York.

Montag joined Goldman in 1985, became a partner in 1994 and then a managing director two years later, before the firm's 1999 IPO. He received a bachelor's degree in 1979 from Stanford University near Palo Alto, California, and a master's in business administration in 1982 from Northwestern University near Chicago.

He started his career at Goldman in fixed-income derivatives and moved to London in 1996 to run derivatives for the firm. When he moved to Tokyo in 1999, Montag took charge of the fixed income, currency and commodities trading in Asia. He gained responsibility for equities in 2002.

``Our Asian securities operations have become increasingly important to the firm's global franchise,'' Blankfein, Winkelried and Cohn said in the memo.

Montag was ranked among Japan's top 100 taxpayers for a third straight year, according to a list released by the tax authorities in May 2005. He paid 418 million yen in taxes in 2004, Japan's 57th highest bill that year.

According to Stanford's web site, Montag donated a $1.4 million state-of-the-art video board to the college in 2003.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 16, 2006 09:19 EDT