Goldman Sachs is going through a huge transformation under CEO David Solomon

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.
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Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is taking big steps to transform the bank.
Goldman has been pushing into consumer banking and wealth management.
Here's a look at the key initiatives and players.
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Goldman Sachs is transforming under CEO David Solomon.

The Wall Street bank has taken steps involving transparency and inclusion to change up its culture. After its first-ever investor day in early 2020, the firm is executing on targets including multi-year cost-cutting plans. And it's making big pushes into wealth management and consumer banking.

The firm's second-quarter 2021 results topped expectations, with the bank reporting its second-highest net revenues on record. Its investment bank raked in more than $3.6 billion in revenue.

But the bank's top ranks have also seen turnover this year, shedding execs within its management committee and partnership.

Here's a rundown of the must-know news at Goldman, including hires and exits, as well as deep dives on its Marcus consumer bank and wealth-management push.

Goldman's dealmakers

Goldman Sachs' global co-heads of investment banking, Jim Esposito and Dan Dees with an orange up-trending arrow and Goldman Sachs arrows patterned behind them on a blue background — Goldman Sachs' global co-heads of investment banking, Jim Esposito and Dan Dees
Goldman Sachs; Samantha Lee/Insider

When Goldman announced its latest class of partners, one group was particularly well-represented on the list. Seven of the 19 investment bankers elevated to partner status came from the bank's powerhouse technology, media, and telecommunications group.

In global M&A, Goldman's snared 11.5% of fees on all completed deals so far in 2021, up from 7.8% for the entirety of 2020, according to Refinitiv data. Completed deals, like the sale of home decor retailer At Home Group to Hellman & Friedman in July, are widening the gap with peers. JPMorgan's picked up 8.6% of fee share so far, from 6% last year, while Morgan Stanley has 7.1% of the fee wallet this year, compared to 6.6% in 2020.

The group has also seen some shakeups. Goldman Sachs veteran Gregg Lemkau, co-head of the firm's investment banking division since 2017 and a member of Goldman's management committee, left at the end of 2020. Instacart tapped Nick Giovanni, former head of Goldman's global technology, media and telecom group, to be its CFO. And in September 2020, Goldman Sachs named new leadership in its M&A group.

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Goldman's wealth-management push

Meena Flynn and John Mallory of Goldman Sachs — Meena Flynn and John Mallory cohead the private wealth business at Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs

Goldman, a firm synonymous with enormous wealth, has in recent years tried to reshape itself as a bank that can count someone with just $1,000 to invest as a client just as it has long done business with large companies and the very wealthy.

It launched Marcus Invest, a robo-advisor with a $1,000 minimum. And it has reorganized how its wealth businesses are situated entirely, creating a new internal consumer and wealth management division that went into effect at the start of this year. Goldman has some 800 advisors within private wealth globally.

Who are the top leaders at Goldman?

Stephanie Cohen, David Solomon, Stephen Scherr, and John Waldron. — Stephanie Cohen, Solomon, Stephen Scherr, and John Waldron.
Cindy Ord/Getty; Paul Morigi/Getty; Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty; Jemal Countess/Getty; Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

Goldman in September 2020 shuffled its setup, creating a new standalone consumer division that includes its Marcus lending unit as well as its wealth-management and private-banking businesses.

Strategy chief Stephanie Cohen and Tucker York, the head of the private-wealth business, were tapped to colead the new consumer and wealth management division and the changes went into effect on Jan. 1.

The new setup matches the way Goldman reports financial results, a change the firm made in 2019 to better align with how Solomon wanted investors to think about the firm. Goldman now has four divisions: consumer and wealth management, asset management, investment banking, and global markets.

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Junior bankers in focus

People enter and exit 200 West Street the Goldman Sachs building in New York.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Goldman Sachs juniors vented this spring about 100-hour work-weeks. The bank has bumped base pay for investment-banking analysts. That move was soon followed by raises for some people in divisions including wealth and markets.

The bank has been looking to hire reinforcements and fast-track tech initiatives to streamline work.

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The lastest news on Goldman's Marcus

Marcus Goldman Sachs — Marcus offers savings and credit products online and through its app.
Reuters

Goldman Sachs has built its consumer-banking arm into a $1 billion business over the past five years.

But it's seen a wave of departures including the exits of top Marcus bosses Omer Ismail and David Stark. And JPMorgan has poached the head of product at Marcus to join the bank's digital and product leadership team for consumer and community banking. Goldman has also brought in new hires, including Peeyush Nahar, an executive at Uber, to head the bank's consumer business.

Insiders explained how Goldman Sachs' hard-charging culture had contributed to exhaustion and high turnover within Marcus, and a Goldman spokesperson told us that the firm is eyeing beefing up the ranks by hiring some 200 to 300 new engineers.

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