- Goldman Sachs is known for long tenures and promoting from within, but Marcus has seen more turnover.
- On Monday, Omer Ismail, Goldman’s head of consumer business, departed.
- Here are the 15 people leading Marcus through a year of massive change.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
For most of its 152-year history, Goldman Sachs was not a household name. Serving the ultra-wealthy and institutional clients, the investment bank flew below the radar for much of Main Street, never putting a logo on its buildings.
That all changed in 2008, when the investment bank became a bank holding company in the wake of the financial crisis. The move meant it could deal in deposits and checking accounts. But it would still be another eight years before it fully entered into the consumer banking space.
In 2016, Goldman launched Marcus, an upstart consumer bank within the firm looking to establish itself on Main Street.
Goldman employees in divisions like investment banking and sales and trading (now called global markets) tend to boast long tenures. More than half of firm’s 2020 partner class started their careers at the firm.
Marcus represented a change from that trend. Most of its senior leadership joined the firm from other companies or via acquisitions. And turnover within Marcus has been more similar to that of a startup.
The first big shift came with the establishment of a standalone consumer division at Goldman, called the consumer and wealth management division, where Marcus now sits. Stephanie Cohen, a fast-rising star at Goldman who previously served as the bank’s strategy chief, and Tucker York, who was head of the bank’s private-wealth business, were tapped to co-head the new division.
That was followed by a major reshuffling of top leadership that saw Harit Talwar, a partner in charge of all of Goldman’s consumer business, effectively give way to Omer Ismail, also a partner at the firm and one of the original backers of Marcus within Goldman.
The change didn’t last, though. Ismail, who took control at the start of the year, is already on his way out.
As of Monday, Ismail is leaving the firm along with David Stark, a fellow partner and one of the creators of the Marcus’ Apple Card. Stark’s departure comes less than a month after a promotion to head the consumer business’ large partnership strategy team.
Both Ismail and Stark are joining Walmart’s nascent fintech startup, as first reported by Bloomberg.
Also this year, Marcus saw the departure of one of its earliest leaders, an executive who had joined Goldman through its 2018 acquisition of Clarity Money. Adam Dell, the founder of Clarity Money, was a partner at Goldman and the head of digital products at Marcus before he stepped down from his role.
In late January, meanwhile, York and Cohen detailed a new strategy and acquisitions team within the division. The team is headed by Jemma Wolfe and Stephan Lambert, both of whom have been at the bank for nearly a decade.
In the wake of the leadership shakeups, Insider mapped out the top executives who still remain at Marcus. The group includes a mix of experts, many of whom are fairly new to the bank.
Meet the top 15 executives who remain at Goldman Sachs’ Marcus
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