Goldman CEO says banks falling short on keeping women in senior-level roles: report

By Steve Gelsi

David Solomon says the long-term success of the storied investment bank relies on promoting women to upper management

About two-thirds of the women who were partners at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. at the end of 2018 have since left the firm or no longer have the title.

That analysis, published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, prompted a written statement from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) Chief Executive David Solomon.

"Advancing women into our most senior ranks is an area where we have not accomplished our goals," Solomon told the newspaper. "Our longer term success depends significantly on developing female partners in senior roles."

By comparison, fewer than half of the bank's male partners have left or no longer have the title since 2018, according to the Wall Street Journal's analysis.

Since becoming chief executive in 2018 after serving as chief operating officer at the bank, Solomon has said that it was a priority to promote women to senior levels.

Solomon has invited the women partners at Goldman to dinner at his New York City apartment on Monday, the Journal reported, to field questions from them on why the firm has fallen short of its goal.

Out of eight executive officers at Goldman Sachs, two are women. They head up the non-revenue-generating legal and accounting units, and neither is seen as a potential candidate to succeed Solomon.

Meanwhile, women who held senior positions at Goldman's core-markets and investment-banking businesses have left the firm or are no longer partners, the report said.

One key departure is that of Stephanie Cohen, a former investment banker who was promoted to co-head the consumer and wealth-management unit in 2020. She was a rare example of a woman heading up a major division at the bank, but Goldman has since pared back the business after losing billions on it.

Also read: Goldman discloses losses in unit that houses Apple Card, GreenSky operations

Cohen took a leave of absence in June for personal reasons and is not expected to resume work at the bank, the Journal said, citing unnamed partners at the firm.

Another departure is that of Beth Hammack, who is retiring from her post as co-head of global financing in the investment-banking unit and taking up the role of senior director, which is seen as an advisory job. Earlier, she had been a potential candidate for the bank's financial chief but lost out.

Hammack told the newspaper she was given "incredible opportunities" at the bank.

Anne Marie Darling, a partner in the markets division, plans to leave the company in the near future, partners told the Journal.

The newspaper said it interviewed close to 20 partners at Goldman Sachs, both men and women, for the article.

Meanwhile, women have made some progress on Wall Street.

Citigroup Inc. (C) Chief Executive Jane Fraser was the first woman to lead any of the largest Wall Street banks when she started in 2021.

At JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), two of the potential successors to Chief Executive Jamie Dimon are women: Jennifer Piepszak, who is co-chief executive of an expanded commercial and investment bank, and Marianne Lake, chief executive of consumer and community banking.

Morgan Stanley's (MS) financial chief is a woman, Sharon Yeshaya.

At last check, Goldman said 19% of its group of 400 current partners are women. That's the highest share in the firm's history and is up from 16% in 2018, according to filings and other public information. About a third of those women partners are from the 2022 class. Older partners generally have more clout at the firm.

Goldman Sachs's stock has risen 1.7% so far in 2024, compared with an 8.3% rise by the S&P 500.

Also read: JPMorgan's global investment banking chief departs for Citi a month after top rank-reshuffle

-Steve Gelsi

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03-14-24 0935ET

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