David Solomon has confronted loads of warmth in his position main Goldman Sachs this yr. However an interplay with faculty college students as a part of his different chairman position is now attracting additional scrutiny.
A bunch of seniors making ready to graduate from his alma mater, upstate New York’s Hamilton Faculty, wrote a letter accusing the Goldman Sachs chairman and chief govt officer of “blatant ignorance and disrespect” as they spoke with him in regards to the faculty’s investments in fossil fuels at a trustee networking occasion.
The scholars stated Solomon, 61, claimed that he did extra in every week to assist local weather change than they might ever do, pointing to his capital accumulation and place of energy. He additionally guessed that the group — all non-male and principally folks of shade — all benefited from monetary assist, and subsequently ought to really feel indebted to endowment they had been questioning, in accordance with the letter.
The letter, collectively written by three members of the category of 2023 and printed on the varsity newspaper’s web site in Could, was reported Friday by New York Journal as a part of a narrative on unrest inside Goldman Sachs over Solomon’s administration type. Solomon serves because the chair of the board of trustees at Hamilton, a liberal arts faculty with about 2,000 college students.
Frustrations inside Goldman have turn out to be more and more public. They escalated by way of the pandemic at the same time as the corporate minted report income, and intensified in latest months throughout a slowdown in core enterprise traces. Fueling the hearth, the bonus pool shrank final yr partially due to losses from the now-abandoned push into shopper banking.
A consultant for Hamilton Faculty declined to remark. Goldman spokesman Tony Fratto stated Solomon has monumental respect for the scholars and “he didn’t and wouldn’t say issues to offend them. We strongly dispute the claims that he did.” Fratto didn’t elaborate on which claims he was disputing.
“At one level, he laughed and instructed us he’d be useless in thirty years, so local weather change could be our downside anyway,” the scholars wrote. They stated Solomon indicated fossil-fuel divestment was a silly motion and that if the scholars traveled to international locations like China, India and Cambodia they may see how the world “actually labored” earlier than deciding in the event that they needed to dwell like that. Shortly after, in June, Solomon convened a Goldman Sachs board assembly in India.
Solomon oversaw report outcomes for Goldman Sachs in 2021, and the inventory is up greater than 50% since he took over virtually 5 years in the past. However he’s confronted components of revolt from the agency’s highly effective cadre of companions over points tied to the enterprise, such because the expensive consumer-banking flop, and a few particular to Solomon himself — complaining about his brusque administration type and his use of the company jet for leisure.
A rising record of senior departures has additionally drawn consideration, with some executives departing quickly after taking new posts, and a few prime girls exiting amid criticism in regards to the agency’s tradition. The tally consists of executives Solomon has elevated, like Julian Salisbury, who left final month for Sixth Avenue Companions.
In latest weeks, the agency has tapped veterans of the corporate to return in key roles. Tom Montag, who spent greater than 20 years at Goldman and helped run the buying and selling enterprise when Solomon ran funding banking, was named to the board of administrators final month. Russell Horwitz, a confidant of former CEO Lloyd Blankfein is rejoining as chief of employees, a task that has been used to construct consensus in prime administration.