Degree: M.B.A. ’70

Who: Secretary of the Treasury; outgoing chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs

Current Residence: He may boast a high-rise apartment on the Upper West Side of New York City, but Paulson’s true home is in Barrington, Ill., where he shares a five-acre farm with raccoons, flying squirrels, alligators, snakes, turtles, frogs, tarantulas, and mice, as well as the more usual birds, dogs, and cats. He admits to Fortune, “It’s hard to think of an animal I’m not interested in.” (But does he keep the mice and tarantulas to feed the snakes?)

Spotlight: The latest of Bush’s appointees may have more in common with Al Gore than with the man himself. After 32 years on Wall Street, Paulson hasn’t forgotten that money isn’t the only thing that’s green: when not chasing down the big bucks, he likes to hug trees, save coral reefs, and watch birds. That said, Paulson is pretty good at making money. At Goldman, he secured major deal after major deal and nearly tripled the share price during his seven-year tenure as CEO and chairman. Well on his way to billionaire status, he nevertheless gave up a lucrative salary of $38 million and 3.23 million Goldman shares to call the shots for Bush’s economy. As Secretary of the Treasury, he will contend with a burgeoning budget deficit, trade issues with China, high energy costs, and Social Security. Success against these knotty problems will be a testament to his economic wizardry, but it will be even more of a victory if he converts Bush to environmentalism. After all, under Paulson’s guidance Goldman became the first Wall Street company to adopt an environmental policy that took global warming into account—without any resulting loss in profits.

Friends: Wendy, fellow environmentalist, volunteer teacher, and spouse; Walter Minnick (M.B.A. ’66, J.D. ’69), who describes his good friend as a “bulldog”; New York senator Charles Schumer, who welcomes his openness, calling him a “down-the-middle guy, a straight shooter”; birds of prey, which he brought every year to the 30th floor of the Goldman Sachs building to meet select employees.

Enemies: Richard Grasso, whom Paulson ousted from the board of the New York Stock Exchange after Grasso made the controversial move of collecting his $140 million pension in advance of retirement.

Seeing Green: Conservatives cried scandal when Goldman donated 680,000 acres of forest on Chilean Tierra del Fuego to establish a natural preserve. They accused Paulson of letting personal interest color the fate of the old-growth forest originally slated for logging (disposing of shareholders’ assets in a way that doesn’t generate money is clearly sacrilegious). But Paulson, chair of The Nature Conservancy, had only the “future generations” in mind in protecting the “exceptional” beech forests found nowhere else, the stunning peat bogs, and the lovable guanaco.

Conflict of Interest: He gave $2000 to Bush’s reelection campaign, but $10,000 to the League of Conservation Voters, an environmentally-friendly organization that regularly criticizes Bush.

Obsessions: Paulson tirelessly wooed Chinese CEOs even before it was cool to love China. Beginning from as early as 1990, he’s logged more than 70 trips there, and New York Magazine lauds his ability to “stare down the Chinese”, a critical skill if the U.S. wants to lower that hulking trade deficit.

Unlikely Talents: Paulson played football for Dartmouth (and against Harvard) in his undergraduate days, winning the All-Ivy, All-New England, and All-East titles and the New England Football Coaches Award as Offensive Lineman of the Year. He was a frat boy (Sigma Alpha Epsilon) but doesn’t drink, thanks to his Christian Scientist upbringing.

Aspirations: Paulson dreamed of becoming a forest ranger before more practical considerations intervened. He now plans to dedicate his life to conservation after retirement, when he will have considerably more impact than a lone ranger.