The former president of Goldman Sachs Japan, Mark Schwartz, has been rehired as a vice chairman of the firm and chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia-Pacific.

Schwartz will be based in Beijing. He succeeds J. Michael Evans, who has served as chairman of Asia-Pacific since 2004. Evans will continue at the firm as a vice chairman and global head of growth markets, based in New York.

The move underscores the importance of China, and more broadly, the Asia-Pacific region, to the firm’s overall business, said the firm in a statement signed by Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs. "(Schwartz) played a critical role in helping to build our businesses across Asia-Pacific, and those experiences and relationships will be even more important as we focus on continuing to help our clients and grow our franchise across the region,” said Blankfein.

Schwartz will work with Masa Mochida, president of Goldman Sachs Japan, and David C. Ryan, president of Goldman Sachs Asia-Pacific Ex-Japan, to expand the firm’s franchise.

He will rejoin the firm’s management committee, on which he served from 1999, when the firm went public, until his departure in 2001.

Schwartz was president of Goldman Sachs Japan from 1997 to 2001 and chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia from 1999 to 2001. Schwartz joined Goldman Sachs in 1979 in the investment banking division.

After leaving Goldman in 2001, Schwartz served as a senior advisor to Soros Fund Management beginning and then as president and CEO from 2003 to 2004. Since 2006, Schwartz has been the chairman of MissionPoint Capital Partners, an investment firm he co-founded, which is focused on the transition to a lower carbon economy. He is heavily involved in philanthropy.

Goldman Sachs established a presence in the Asia-Pacific region in 1974 when it opened a representative office in Tokyo. Today, it employs 5,000 people in offices across 11 different countries and territories. Its global services office in Bangalore, India, supporting the firm’s business around the world, employs an additional 4,100 people.

It is expanding its presence in China. Goldman Sachs established representative offices in Beijing and Shanghai in 1994. Today, the firm’s China platform, which includes its joint venture, Goldman Sachs Gao Hua, and its domestic partner, Beijing Gao Hua Securities, is engaged in investment banking, asset management, private wealth management and securities trading.