Zain Latif

Zain Latif

Zain Latif (born November 28, 1983) is the current Principle of TLG Capital and Managing Director of Duet Africa Private Equity. Born in Kuwait to a Pakistani father and Iranian mother they are members of the Baha'i Faith. At 19, Zain Latif landed a job at "highly competitive investment banks in the City."(see City of London) According to his biography at TLG Capital, "Zain joined Goldman Sachs from Merrill Lynch where he was involved in originating and executing a number of groundbreaking emerging market transactions in Africa. Prior to Merrill Lynch, Zain spear-headed the special situations African effort at HSBC which culminated in the inaugural debt/equity hybrid structure for First Monument City Bank in Nigeria. Zain has a Masters degree in Finance from Cass Business School, City University." At the age of 23, Zain became the youngest VP of Goldman Sachs.

In a 2008 article in The Guardian, "Zain defended the often sky-high pay packages the City gives. "It is a very ruthless environment and people need to be rewarded for it. It's a bit like footballers. Footballers do make incredible amounts of money but they have a limited lifespan. This is also the case with bankers; it's risk and reward. The risk is that you can lose your job very quickly, there is a lot of stress, long hours, a culture of 'man-eat-man'. The pay is there to reflect the fact that people are taking all these risks and succeeding." According to the same article, "The brothers have taken part in events for the City of London Careers in the City (where advisers talk to students) to dispel the glamorous view of banking held by some youngsters and tell them it's mostly hard graft."

Career :


 * 2004-HSBC graduate analyst class


 * 2007-Merrill Lynch vice-president in emerging markets


 * 2008-Goldman Sachs executive director in the emerging markets division


 * 2009-Founded TLG Capital

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Goldman Sachs
 * Merrill Lynch
 * City of London
 * Baha'i Faith