Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon cracked down on dissent by launching a probe into leaks and purging stalwarts who were trying to undermine his leadership, according to a blockbuster report.
Solomon, who took over the Wall Street giant from Lloyd Blankfein in 2018, tightened his grip following a wave of internal backlash during a rocky stretch in 2022 and 2023 as Goldman’s profits faltered.
He was blamed for the firm’s costly expansion into consumer lending and was ridiculed for his attention-grabbing side gig as DJ-Sol — who was booked for highly-publicized events in the Hamptons and at Lollapalooza.
Solomon fought back against the bad publicity by launching an investigation to track down those suspected of leaking information to the media and dressing down executives behind closed doors, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Solomon personally told Goldman’s board he was going to “take action” against nettlesome employees, sources told the Journal.
He pushed out longtime executives who had questioned his leadership — including Jim Esposito, co-head of global banking and markets, and top trader Ed Emerson.
Emerson’s departure came after he reportedly told colleagues at a dinner that Solomon should be fired and replaced by President John Waldron.
Solomon found out, and Emerson was gone, according to the Journal.
Even exit conversations became battlegrounds.
Sources told the Journal that Solomon yelled at partners who came to inform him they were leaving.
Solomon’s iron-fisted approach marked a dramatic shift from Goldman’s traditional partnership culture, in which senior leaders historically operated with a degree of autonomy and influence.
But Solomon began restructuring the firm almost immediately after taking the reins, dismantling divisions, reversing course on strategy and centralizing decision-making authority. The upheaval accelerated after the firm’s ill-fated expansion into consumer finance.
During his initial four-year tenure, he led multiple restructurings — including splitting wealth management from asset management in 2020, only to recombine the two just two years later in 2022.
The constant organizational shifts fueled an exodus of partners. In the asset management unit alone, nine of the 11 partners appointed as leaders in early 2022 have since left.
“When you restructure an entire division, leadership changes are sometimes inevitable,” Goldman spokesperson Tony Fratto told The Post on Tuesday.
Fratto added that “the story at the firm is people coming back” and that “a quarter of our managing director and partner hires last year were people returning to Goldman Sachs.”
Solomon championed the $2 billion acquisition of lender GreenSky in 2021 — a deal that many of his deputies opposed, the Journal reported.
Two years later, Goldman sold the business at a loss. As the consumer division hemorrhaged money, investment banking revenue slowed, and partners saw their compensation shrink. Tensions inside the firm exploded.
“The firm set out a detailed strategic plan in 2020 to grow our franchise and meaningfully improve returns,” Fratto told The Post.
“The vast majority of those goals have been met or exceeded.”
Internal critics charged that Solomon’s vision had become a costly distraction. But rather than change course, Solomon doubled down.
When Esposito presented Solomon with a written critique of the consumer-lending strategy and recommendations for a shift in focus, Solomon dismissed it outright, according to the report.
The relationship between the two men deteriorated quickly. In late 2023, Esposito, once seen as a future CEO candidate, left the firm.
That same year, Goldman’s board launched its own review into the consumer debacle and examined who was responsible for the losses.
At the same time, the firm’s consumer-lending operations were facing scrutiny from federal regulators. But even as external pressure mounted, Solomon was quietly consolidating control.
According to the Journal, he met privately with hundreds of Goldman partners around the world, telling them to ignore media noise and focus on the firm’s future under his leadership.
By 2024, Goldman had begun exiting the consumer space and refocusing on its core strengths: investment banking, trading and wealth management. The firm’s stock price soared 48%, and profits rebounded. Solomon also gave up his DJ gigs.
In the last five years, Goldman stock has climbed more than 209% — more than doubling the gains made by the S&P 500 and besting rivals such as JPMorgan Chase (170%), Bank of America (80%) and Citigroup (54%).
“Basic facts should be hard to ignore. Goldman Sachs is the best performing US bank stock over the past five years, and we’ve grown our revenues by nearly 50%,” Fratto said.
“Our investors know the strategy we laid out in 2020 is working,” Fratto told The Post.
There was one other major twist: Waldron, Solomon’s longtime deputy, was approached by Apollo Global Management for a top role. When Waldron informed his boss that he planned to leave, the CEO reportedly encouraged him to stay.
Solomon went to the board, arguing that Goldman couldn’t afford to lose Waldron. The result was both men being handed $80 million retention bonuses to stay five more years, and Waldron was given a board seat, the Journal reported.
Goldman came under fire from two major proxy advisory firms for awarding the $80 million retention bonuses, with Institutional Shareholder Services slamming the payouts as “poor practice” that “lack rigorous, pre-set performance criteria.”
Glass Lewis also criticized Goldman’s “continued inability to align pay with performance” and urged shareholders to vote against the awards at an April meeting.
Solomon also received a pay bump, bringing his compensation to $39 million.
A source familiar with the situation told The Post that Solomon is “operating now from a position of strength.”
“He’s refocused the firm.”
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