Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Goldman Sachs’ Jim Esposito, one of chief executive David Solomon’s top lieutenants, is leaving the Wall Street firm in a surprise departure.
Solomon told staff in a memo on Monday that the 56-year-old Esposito, known to colleagues as “Espo”, was leaving the bank after almost three decades. He was most recently co-head of Goldman Sachs’ flagship investment banking and trading business.
“On a personal note, I am grateful for Jim’s counsel, friendship and sense of humour during our many years of collaboration,” Solomon wrote in the memo seen by the Financial Times.
Esposito was made one of three co-heads of Goldman’s investment banking and trading division, alongside Ashok Varadhan and Dan Dees, after the two businesses were merged in 2022. The unit generated around two-thirds of Goldman’s revenues last year.
Esposito was viewed internally as one of a number of candidates who could be in the running to take over from Solomon, though bank president John Waldron is considered the leading contender.
Solomon has led Goldman since late 2018. Esposito’s is the latest high-profile departure in recent years, amid a series of reorganisations and strategic changes at the bank. Solomon’s leadership style was the subject of internal criticism last year but the FT reported that he retained the backing of the bank’s board of directors. He stands to earn a special stock award if he remains at the bank until 2026.
Esposito joined Goldman in 1995 as a salesperson in its emerging markets debt business and was made a partner in 2006. He had previously been co-head of both Goldman’s investment banking and trading divisions when they were standalone businesses.
Read the full article here