Some boards deserve to be rapped for their lack of CEO succession planning. Not so for Goldman Sachs' board. In some ways, it seems, the board has been planning for a CEO transition ever since the financial crisis took hold.

In part because so many people were clamoring for CEO Lloyd Blankfein to step down, the board--which is chaired by Blankfein--seemed to make it a point of pride to not let him go. The best way to underscore its innocence on so many issues was to stick with their man through the crisis. Blankfein was personally invested in seeing the company through the SEC charges, which he did capably.

But the board perhaps also knew that once the crisis was over, a change would be in order. And it deftly positioned Michael Evans, vice chairman, as the internal candidate for the top spot.

So, are we at the point that a CEO transition can occur without it seeming like a defeat for the company? It seems that way. 

"I've been talking to friends of his, and this is what friends of his have been telling me, and what they are telling me ... is that they think this guys last year is this year. That he is tired of it," FOXBusiness's  Charlie Gasparino reports. "He's tired of running the company, being the center of attraction and scorn, and that in sometime in 2012, and maybe they'll announce it this year, Lloyd Blankfein will not be CEO of Goldman Sachs."

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