Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon promoted a slew of top bankers on Tuesday to run the firm’s biggest business units, just days after the bank boss was awarded a pair of massive bonuses.
The Wall Street giant announced as many as 15 senior promotions as part of a move that is being seen as a drive to promote the next generation of leadership at its 200 West St. headquarters in lower Manhattan.
It follows the news that Solomon, 63, had picked up a cool $39 million pay packet in 2023, plus an $80 million retention bonus if he sticks around for another five years as the bank looks to hang on to its top talent.
“This group of leaders represents the very best of our culture of excellence, client service, and teamwork,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said.
The company announced that it would appoint Erdit Hoxha, Cyril Goddeeris, and Dmitri Potishko will jointly run the equities division.
It added that Kunal Shah, Anshul Sehgal, and Jason Brauth will run the financial titan’s fixed-income unit, while Kim Posnett, Matt McClure, and Anthony Gutman will lead banking.
Shah and Gutman have also been named as co-chief executive officers of Goldman Sachs International.
It means Richard Gnodde, 64, will step down from running the international business to become vice chairman of Goldman Sachs.
The leadership shake-up will see Goldman Sachs’s management committee grow to 39; the group of senior executives helps to steer the firm’s strategy and policy.
Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo told The Post that Wall Street bankers are firms such as Goldman were “partying like it’s 1999”: the year when stocks rallied amid a pre-Millienium dot.com boom.
“You need to pay people and promote them so you make sure they feel appreciated in a bull market such as now,” Mayo said.
“You have pent-up demand for deals. You have a trillion dollars of money that’s ready to get deployed for deals,” he added. “You have high stock markets, ample liquidity and deregulation like you haven’t seen for perhaps a couple of decades.”
A Goldman Sachs spokesperson declined to comment further when approached by The Post.
Goldman’s stock price has shot up by nearly 50% over the past year and is up by 174% since Solomon took over from his long-serving predecessor Lloyd Blankfein in 2018.
Over the past two years, Solomon has refocused the bank’s efforts on its traditional investment banking activities after racking up billions of dollars in losses on its consumer banking arm, Marcus.
His reign has also been dogged by negative headlines about his DJing side hustle, where he appeared under his house music moniker D-Sol, and his frequent use of corporate aircraft.
