Goldman Sachs isn’t just a name, it’s a shorthand—a quick way of describing the pinnacle of Wall Street. As a result, the firm is probably the most-written about bank on all of Wall Street (and all of the world). If you want to know more about Goldman’s history, this list will make you an expert on the firm’s doings.
Jacki Zehner started working at Goldman Sachs in 1988. Eight years later, she was the first female trader to be made partner at the firm (back when it was still a partnership). Since leaving Goldman in 2002, she has remained in the financial sector, most notably as an advocate for gender equality and the advancement of diversity issues on Wall Street and elsewhere. She sat down with Quartz to discuss how Goldman Sachs can—and must—make the move from a boys’ club to a leader in gender equality.
New CEO, new competitors, new regulatory environment—Goldman Sachs is a very different company than it was 10 years ago. As it navigates this unfamiliar terrain, here’s what you should know about the firm that has, for decades, defined the pinnacle of Wall Street.
Goldman’s hierarchy has been pored over by kremlinologists for more than a century. As the company enters a new, more challenging, era, these are the key people calling the shots at the storied financial powerhouse.
Marcus Goldman, who started what became Goldman Sachs 150 years ago, was the original Interstitial Man. Dressed to the nines in a Prince Albert frock coat and a silk top hat, Goldman set up shop on Pine Street, a narrow canyon just north of Wall Street, and made a fabulous business for himself and his family by buying and selling the chits of the small businesses that had sprung up around lower Manhattan after the Civil War.
Part of the reason Goldman’s stock now trades below its tangible book value is the still unknown consequences of an unfolding financial scandal involving two, and perhaps more, of its former bankers in Asia and the embezzlement of billions of dollars from 1MDB, a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
Doesn’t Goldman have a new CEO now?
