Wall Street was abuzz this week with Goldman Sachs bankers and rival financiers questioning what was behind the firm’s Monday announcement that securities division coheads Pablo Salame and Isabelle Ealet would be leaving the bank in June.
Ealet’s departure was expected — the business she was most closely associated with, commodities, had its worst year on record in 2017 — but Salame’s departure was a bit more abrupt. Long considered the de facto head of the division, he is a vice chairman, close to CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and the chair of one of the firm’s most powerful bodies, the partnership committee.
We spoke with more than half a dozen Goldman Sachs partners past and present, as well as close confidants to current partners, to understand what happened and what it means for the firm going forward.
