Goldman Sachs Change in Voice Shows Transition for Wall Street

Lucas van Praag’s departure after 12 years as Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s chief spokesman and the possible hiring of a former U.S. Treasury Department aide to replace him signal that Wall Street is ready to change its tone.

Van Praag, whose retirement was announced in an internal memo yesterday, had a taste for dismissing negative press reports about New York-based Goldman Sachs as “chimera produced by a febrile mind” and “effluent.” The 62-year-old British citizen’s style was described in a New York Observer profile as “basically a stiffly extended middle finger.”