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Gary Cohn, Goldman Sachs Group Inc president and chief operating officer, arrives for a meeting at Trump Tower to speak with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in New York, U.S., November 29, 2016.Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Gary Cohn, once the heir apparent to Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, was named President-elect Donald Trump's top chief economic policy adviser.

Cohn, who has spent more than 25 years at the investment bank, will head the National Economic Council, among the most influential panels inside the White House, helping to coordinate and develop the president's economic program, Trump said Monday in a statement.

"He will help craft economic policies that will grow wages for our workers, stop the exodus of jobs overseas and create many great new opportunities for Americans who have been struggling," Trump said in the statement.

Cohn, 56, became Goldman Sachs's co-president in 2006, and later sole president, holding an office that in recent decades has been used to groom the next CEO. Both Blankfein and his predecessor, Henry Paulson, served as presidents of the company before ascending to the top spot. But after 10 years there, Blankfein has signaled no intention of stepping down, leaving Cohn to explore other opportunities.

"Gary and I have been partners for more than 25 years, so I know better than perhaps anyone that he has the intelligence, commitment, and experience to be successful at any endeavor he undertakes," Blankfein said in a separate statement.

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