By Saeed Azhar
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Goldman Sachs will promote 608 executives to managing directors next year, fewer than the 643 senior bankers it elevated two years ago, according to a company memo.
The Wall Street firm announces managing director promotions every two years. The number of promotions this year is the lowest since Goldman promoted 465 in 2019, before the pandemic.
Of the new managing directors, 47% were promoted from Goldman's traditional mainstays of investment banking and trading, while 24% came from asset and wealth management and 2% from platform solutions, the company said.
The promotions come as Goldman has seen a number of high-profile departures including the exit of Julian Salisbury, chief investment officer of asset and wealth management, who is joining investment firm Sixth Street.
It also cut over 3,000 jobs earlier this year, the biggest cull since the 2008 financial crisis.
Women comprised 31% of the class, a record level and slightly higher than the 30% in 2021.
But progress on racial representation slowed, as Black employees accounted for only 2% of managing directors, down from 5% in 2021. Hispanic or Latino staff made up 4%, down from 5% in 2021.
"We remain committed to achieving our aspirational goals and increasing representation at all levels of the firm," a company spokesperson said. "While we've made progress in developing a diverse pipeline of talent, we recognize there is much more work to be done."
About 3% of the managing directors were from the LGBT+ community, unchanged from 2021.
The cohort was 31% Asian, a record level and up from 28% 2021.
"Our 2023 class reflects the firm's ongoing focus on advancing our strategic objectives, as well as on continuing to invest in our global footprint as we stay close to our clients around the world," according to the memo from CEO David Solomon and president John Waldron.
Departures and job cuts have accelerated after Goldman Sachs divided its business into three units last year and scaled back ambitions for its consumer business, which has lost $3 billion in the last three years.
The capital markets environment has improved recently, which encouraged large listings in the United States including the listing of Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM). On the deals front, Goldman Sachs was among the advisors to Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), which agreed to sell itself to ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) in a $60 billion deal.
Both mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings had faltered last year in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes to tame inflation.
But Goldman Sachs' third-quarter profit dropped less than expected as a nascent recovery in dealmaking offset an $864 million writedown related to its GreenSky fintech business and real estate investments.