Gene Sykes, co-head of mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs, discusses his role in helping Los Angeles secure the 2028 Olympic Games and compares that effort with earlier waves of large corporate deals. In a conversation recorded at the Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach, California, he also reflects on how major transactions are shaped by changing market conditions.
The reports connect Sykes’s experience to the broader deal environment. Bloomberg describes a current era of “megadeals,” with Goldman Sachs reporting a record year for big deal volumes as companies reposition to compete in the AI-driven technology landscape. Sykes draws parallels to the early 2000s TMT (telecom, media, and technology) period, a cycle he says he has observed across his multi-decade career.
Across the outlets, the common theme is Sykes’s long tenure at Goldman and his involvement in high-profile deals, alongside his participation in a major public-sector project. The Olympics-related coverage focuses on the question of how a city finances and delivers an event of that scale, while the markets and technology angles emphasize the current intensity of corporate dealmaking.
