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 co-heads Pablo Salame and Isabelle Ealet will leave 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 to 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.
