Goldman Loses Another Senior Exec
(29 July 2023 - United States) Julian Salisbury is the latest in a string of high-profile exits to come from the bank with the investment officer set to join a smaller asset manager.
Goldman Sachs Group lost Julian Salisbury to a smaller asset manager after a series of changes in a $US2.7 trillion ($4 trillion) unit that it has billed as key to propping up the stock.
Salisbury, chief investment officer of Goldman’s asset- and wealth-management division, is leaving to join Sixth Street Partners as co-chief investment officer. The move follows leadership churn and multiple reorganisations in Goldman’s asset-management business in recent years.
The executive is the latest high-profile departure from Goldman’s top ranks and another blow for chief executive officer David Solomon, after turnover and strategic missteps have raised questions about the firm’s leadership.
Early in Solomon’s tenure, Salisbury was asked to help run a revamped merchant bank. Then, when Goldman cleaved its wealth business from the money-management arm, it gave Salisbury a bigger remit. The move put the focus on an investor known for his money-making bets, but with little experience running a large unit.
To address that, he was given a co-head in Luke Sarsfield last year, only for both of them to lose that perch after Goldman’s management reversed course again. Sarsfield has also left the bank.
Solomon, who had forged ahead with plans to separate the asset-management and wealth business despite scepticism within the bank, cobbled those two groups back together in another organisational revamp in October.
Goldman carved out a CIO job for Salisbury in its asset- and wealth-management business. At the time, top Goldman leaders said Salisbury’s new post was created to highlight the importance of the business and not an effort to sideline the executive, though the move was seen by some as a demotion.
Among other reversals, Goldman has been dismantling its consumer business this year after initially tapping Stephanie Cohen, a fast-rising executive, to spearhead that initiative. Cohen has taken a leave from the bank as it tries to trim down the unit it had created for her to run in October.
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