Goldman Sachs to name David Solomon CEO on Tuesday: sources
Goldman Sachs will name David M. Solomon to replay Lloyd C. Blankfein as its next chief executive officer on Tuesday, sources familiar with the situation told CNBC.
The news will be disclosed to all the company’s managing directors in a conference call Tuesday morning, according to the sources, who declined to be identified speaking about management’s plans. The New York-based investment bank is also scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
The move allows Solomon, 56, to take further steps to put his own management team in place, according to The New York Times, which earlier reported that an announcement was coming this week. Blankfein, who presided over the investment bank during a tumultuous 12 years, will stay on for a transition period, according to the Times. Tuesday’s announcement will focus on the handover to Solomon and isn’t likely to include information about the incoming CEO’s deputies, the sources told CNBC.
Solomon’s ascent has been expected since he was named sole president of Goldman Sachs in March, edging out his former Co-President Harvey Schwartz. But the timing of the announcement is coming sooner than first thought; earlier in the year, a formal announcement was expected in the fall.
Blankfein, 63, is the longest-tenured CEO of a major Wall Street bank along with J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who started a few months before him in 2006. The announcement of Blankfein’s eventual departure marks the end of a period that saw Goldman Sachs navigate the U.S. housing boom, the financial crisis that sprang from its excesses and a post-crisis period where the firm’s vaunted trading businesses struggled to generate as much profit.
His successor must focus on the bank’s historic strengths in trading and investment banking advisory while continuing to build out the bank’s new consumer-facing businesses, like its Marcus brand. The consumer business offers savings accounts and loans, but could ultimately spread to credit cards, mortgages, car loans, life and health insurance through Marcus, according to a May presentation from the bank.
“We’re now building a digital consumer finance platform,” Solomon said at the time. “We think digital finance is at a very, very interesting pivot point. And we think we’re in a position where we can be part of the disruption.”
Solomon, who is an electronic dance music disc jockey in his spare time, has said employee diversity is a priority at Goldman Sachs and has cited his unusual hobby as an ice breaker in conversations with junior bankers.
Shares of Goldman Sachs rose 1.9 percent at 1:39 p.m. in New York trading amid a broad rally in bank stocks. The company’s stock has declined 9.5 percent this year.
Source: CNBC
