Goldman Sachs Reshuffles Exec Team as Longtime COO Retires

Goldman Sachs has reshuffled its leadership team following the retirement of longtime executive Laurence Stein.

Stein has spent 27 years at the banking giant, most recently serving as executive vice president and chief operating officer of asset and wealth management.

According to an announcement provided to PYMNTS Monday (Sept. 11), he will be succeeded by Will Bousquette, who had been chief operating officer of Goldman’s global banking and markets division.

“Laurence’s unwavering commitment has positively impacted our firm in countless ways,” the announcement said.

“He helped evolve our business planning efforts across the firm, and played a crucial role in driving a cohesive front-to-back organizational structure, aligning our Engineering and Operations functions for optimal efficiency.”

Replacing Bousquette as COO of global banking and markets (GBM) will be Ericka Leslie, Goldman’s chief administrative officer.

“In her new role, Ericka will work with us as we continue to grow our business globally,” the announcement said. “As chief operating officer, she will also have responsibility for operations and engineering, as well as resourcing for GBM.”

The leadership shuffle follows a series of changes at Goldman Sachs, which last year split its business into three smaller divisions. The bank has also been paring back its consumer business — such as the sale of GreenSky, its FinTech lending unit — as it focuses more on its wealthiest clients.

Last month, the bank announced the sale of its personal finance business to investment adviser Creative Planning. According to a news release, Creative Planning is one of the country’s largest registered investment advisers (RIA), with $245 billion in assets under management and advisement.

“Creative’s wealth management teams will continue to have access to investment solutions and services from Goldman Sachs Asset Management as it builds a leading investment management platform,” the release said, noting that Creative last month forged a strategic custody relationship with Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions (GSAS).

Last month saw reports that the GreenSky sale was reportedly nearing a close, with Goldman seeing interest from the private equity realm, and from the FinTech arena itself.

“Interestingly, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered FinTech Pagaya Technologies is also rumored to be in the mix, with private equity investor General Atlantic as a partner,” PYMNTS wrote. “In terms of the price tag, the latter two firms are reportedly offering up to $800 million.”

If the sale price is indeed in the neighborhood of several hundreds of millions of dollars, “it could hardly be said that Goldman would make a return on its investment, having paid $2.2 billion just under two years ago for GreenSky,” that report said.