William D Cohan today won the Financial Times & Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2007 (www.ft.com/bookaward) for THE LAST TYCOONS, an account of unrestrained ambition, billion-dollar fortunes, Byzantine power struggles and hidden scandal, published by Doubleday.

The Award was presented today at a Gala Dinner at the British Library in London by Lionel Barber, Editor of the Financial Times, and Lloyd C Blankfein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs. The keynote speaker was Lakshmi Mittal, President and CEO of ArcelorMittal, widely recognised for the leading role he has played in restructuring the steel industry.

Lakshmi Mittal said ”I am passionate about the steel industry. But I am also passionate about business. Therefore from my perspective books that promote business in an interesting and readable way are a very valuable addition to anyone’s bookshelf.”

William D Cohan saw off strong competition to pick up the £30,000 award, which was presented for the third year running and aims to find the book that provides ‘the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues.’ Each of the five runners-up also received a cheque for £5,000 and can expect a sharp upturn in sales of their books.

Lionel Barber, editor, Financial Times said: “A gripping read. An insider’s account of power struggles at the top of one of Wall Street’s most famous banks. The level of research is impressive and the narrative spell-binding. All in all, a must-read about how Wall Street works.”

Lloyd C Blankfein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Goldman Sachs, said:

“A really insightful and vivid story, in part about how to handle big egos and the challenge of creating a team. There are many lessons to be learned from this book that apply to all of us.”

The Financial Times also unveiled the results of an online poll of readers to find the best business book of all-time. The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith’s influential economic treatise, published in 1776, was voted the winner.

Full results of the poll, the shortlist of candidates and an online debate about the best book can be found at www.ft.com/bookaward.

The judging panel for the 2007 Award was:

•Lionel Barber, Editor, Financial Times

•Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Goldman Sachs

•John Gapper, Chief Business Commentator and Associate Editor, Financial Times

•Jeffrey Garten, Juan Trippe Professor of International Trade, Finance and Business, Yale School of Management

•Rachel Lomax, Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy, Bank of England

•N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies

•Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive, WPP

Photographs of William D Cohan and shortlisted authors, keynote speaker Lakshmi Mittal, the judges and the award ceremony are available on request.

For further information, please contact:

Lizzie Allen, Financial Times, 020 7873 4463 or lizzie.allen@ft.com

Katrina Power/Steven Williams, Midas PR (UK), +44 (0)207 584 7474, +44 (0)79639 62538 or katrina.power@midaspr.co.uk

Camille McDuffie, Goldberg McDuffie Communications (US), +1 512 301 8936 or cmduffie@goldbergmcduffie.com

Christopher Williams, Goldman Sachs, +1 212-357-5296 or Christopher.J.Williams@gs.com

The Financial Times & Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2007

WINNER 2007

The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co

William D Cohan (Doubleday)

For more than a century, the mystique and reputation of the ”Great Men” who worked at Lazard Frères & Co allowed the firm to garner unimaginable profits, social cachet, and outsized influence in the halls of power.

William D. Cohan takes the reader into the mysterious and secretive world of Lazard and presents a compelling portrait of Wall Street through the tumultuous history of this exalted and fascinating company. A story of high drama in the world of high finance, The Last Tycoons is a tale of vaulting ambitions, whispered advice, worldly mistresses, fabulous art collections and enormous wealth.

William D. Cohan was an award-winning investigative journalist before embarking on a career as an investment banker on Wall Street. He spent six years at Lazard Frères in New York and later became Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase & Co. He lives in New York City and Columbia County, New York.

SHORTLISTED

Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future

Iain Carson and Vijay V Vaitheeswaran (Twelve/HGB USA)

ZOOM discusses what may be the most important challenge facing the industrial world: how to make the transition from the Age of Petroleum to a cleaner and better future. The book takes readers inside the global race to build the car of the future that will run on cleaner energy sources. With wide-ranging analysis and a keen view of the key players in the intersecting worlds of energy and automobiles, Zoom traces the history of the linked industries of oil and automobiles, and how the two have shaped domestic capitalism and the international landscape, creating both progress and peril.

Iain Carson is the European Business Editor for The Economist. He also writes about the manufacturing industry and the defence sector. Iain lives in England.

Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran is an MIT-trained engineer who spent ten years covering global environmental and energy issues for The Economist. He lives in New York.

The Age Of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World

Alan Greenspan (Allen Lane)

The most remarkable thing that happened to the world economy after 9/11 was ... nothing. What would have once meant a crippling shock to the system was absorbed astonishingly quickly, partly due to the efforts of the then Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan. The post 9/11 global economy is a new and turbulent system - vastly more flexible, resilient, open, self-directing, and fast-changing than it was even twenty years ago.

The Age of Turbulence discusses this new world and what lies over the horizon channelled through Greenspan’s own experiences working in the command room of the global economy for longer and with greater effect than any other single living figure.

Alan Greenspan served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Gerald Ford. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed him chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, a position he held until his retirement in 2006.

Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them

Philippe Legrain (Little, Brown)

Immigration divides our globalising world like no other issue. This book asks why ever-rising numbers of people from poor countries are arriving in Europe, North America and Australasia? Can we keep them out? Should we even be trying? Combining compelling first-hand reporting from around the world, incisive socio-economic analysis and a broad understanding of what is at stake politically and culturally, Immigrants advises us to rally behind the cause of freer migration, because They need Us and We need Them.

Philippe Legrain, 33, is a journalist who writes primarily about globalisation, migration and European issues. He first wrote for The Economist, before moving to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) where he was special adviser to director-general Mike Moore, before becoming chief economist, then director of policy, at Britain in Europe. In 1999, he was highly commended as Young Financial Journalist of the Year in the Harold Wincott Press Awards and is the author of Open World: The Truth about Globalisation. Philippe lives in London.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Allen Lane)

A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principle characteristics: it is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random and more predictable than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a Black Swan; so was 9/11. Nassim Nicholas Taleb suggests that the reason we ignore the phenomenon of Black Swans until after they occur, is that we are hard-wired not to truly estimate risk, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the ’impossible’. The Black Swan is a concept that will change the way you look at the world.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 47, is an essayist, philosopher of randomness, researcher, and practitioner of financial mathematics. As a pioneer of complex financial derivatives, he had a lengthy senior trading career in New York City’s Wall Street firms, before he reduced his financial mathematics activities to start a second career as an epistemologist of chance events and focus on the development of his Black Swan theory of unexpected rare events. Taleb lives mainly in New York.

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

Don Tapscott & Anthony D Williams (Portfolio)

While some leaders fear the heaving growth of massive online communities, Wikinomics proves this fear is folly. Smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation, growth, and success. An insightful guide to one of the most profound changes of our time, Wikinomics challenges our most deeply-rooted assumptions about business and will prove indispensable to anyone who wants to understand competitiveness in the twenty-first century.

Don Tapscott, one of the world’s leading authorities on business strategy, is Chief Executive of international think tank New Paradigm that produces groundbreaking research focused on the role of technology in productivity, business design, effectiveness and competitiveness. Tapscott is the author of 10 books about information technology in business and society, including Paradigm Shift, Growing Up Digital and The Naked Corporation. He lives in Canada.

Anthony D. Williams is an author and avid researcher examining the impact of new technologies on social and economic life. Anthony is Vice President and Executive Editor at New Paradigm. He lives in Canada.

Notes to editors

The closing date for entries for The Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2007, invited from publishers or bona fide imprints based in any country, was June 30, 2007. Details of the Terms and Conditions are available from www.ft.com/bookaward. This annual Award aims to identify the book that provides the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues, including management, finance and economics.

About the Financial Times:

The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business newspapers, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing extensive news, comment and analysis, the newspaper is printed at 24 print sites across the globe, has a daily circulation of 441,219 (ABC figures, September 2007) and a readership of more than 1.3 million people worldwide. FT.com is one of the world’s leading business information websites, and the internet partner of the FT newspaper. FT.com is the definitive home for business intelligence on the web, providing an essential source of news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community. FT.com attracts 5.35 million unique monthly generating 43 million page views users (ABC electronic figures, March 2007). FT.com has 101,000 subscribers.

About Goldman Sachs:

Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of services worldwide to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high net worth individuals. Founded in 1869, it is one of the oldest and largest investment banking firms. The firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other major financial centers around the world.

www.ft.com/bookaward