A Goldman Sachs up-and-comer, Stephen Scherr, has been promoted to head the firm’s global strategy effort, replacing veteran Andrew Chisholm, who joined the firm in 1985. Chisholm is retiring at the end of the year.
Scherr’s official title will be chief strategy officer. In the role, he will coordinate with the heads of various divisions across the investment bank in an effort to drive revenue and profit growth—according to a memo obtained by Quartz. A spokesman confirmed the contents of the memo.
We’ve mentioned Scherr before as a part of a short list of candidates, including chief financial officer Harvey Schwartz and chief operating officer Gary Cohn, who are in the running to one day replace top boss Lloyd Blankfein.
Scherr will be taking on the strategy role in addition to his current job as head of Goldman’s Latin American business. He will relinquish his title as global head of the firm’s financing group, in which he oversaw Goldman’s debt and equity financing activities.
The promotion puts Scherr at the center of Goldman’s struggle to adapt to the changing climate on Wall Street. Areas like fixed-income, currencies and commodities (otherwise known as FICC), once major money makers, have been hammered by a slowdown in trading activity. In addition, increased regulatory activity, aimed at forcing banks to cut down on risk taking, is also making it tougher for Goldman’s trading unit to generate the kind of outsized returns that were once common. But unlike some rivals, Goldman has resisted jettisoning traditional business lines such as commodities trading, investment banking or bond-trading.