Goldman Sachs executives are leaving the firm, but at least one high-ranking talent has been enticed to stay.
Carey Halio, Goldman’s incoming global treasurer, succeeds 20-year vet Philip Berlinski, who recently departed the Wall Street giant for Israel Englander’s 5,500-member hedge fund, Millennium Management. Currently global head of Strategy and Investor Relations, Halio is slated to assume her new role on June 1st.
Since joining Goldman in 1999 as a summer associate in the Credit Risk department, Halio, a former US Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala, has climbed the ranks. She became a managing director in 2009; a partner in 2016; and, eventually, served as CEO of Goldman Sachs Bank USA and deputy treasurer of the parent company.
Her promotion points up a period of transition for Goldman. Aside from the loss of Berlinski to Millennium, Naveen Choppara, former co-head of Goldman Sachs’ EMEA emerging markets and foreign-exchange rates trading divisions, left the shop after 11 years to join the hedge fund’s Dubai office. Millennium has poached other ex-Goldman professionals, too. The list includes rate traders Urvashi Chahal, Andres Ankers and Amir Fais.
Other firms have picked off top execs as well. In late January, Jim Esposito, who was reportedly vying for David Solomon’s CEO role, announced his retirement. Beth Hammack, a 30-year vet who was in line to become Goldman’s next CFO, followed suit. So did Stephanie Cohen, who ditched the Consumer and Wealth division in favor of a chief strategist role at San Francisco-based Cloudflare.
The trend is widely seen as a reflection on Solomon, who has been in charge since 2018. Since then, the 62-year-old boss has made several organizational changes at the firm, including 2022’s firmwide “realignment.”
Solomon has also shouldered much of the blame for the collapse of Goldman’s foray into consumer banking, as well as the current lack of women in leadership positions. Last May, Goldman settled a class-action lawsuit over gender pay discrimination for $215 million.
Still, whatever internal strife there may be among the bank’s brass isn’t noticeable in the most recent earnings report. According to Oppenheimer analyst Chris Kotowski, Goldman Sachs delivered a “near-perfect print”: $14 billion in net revenue for the first quarter, thanks in large part to solid returns in its asset and wealth management division.
