The Goldman Sachs power players behind Lloyd Blankfein

David Solomon — Cohead of the investment-banking division

REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

Solomon has been the cohead of investment banking in New York since 2006. Before that, he was the global head of the financing group. He played an important role in revamping the investment bank’s junior banker policies in 2015 to fast-track top performers to promotion, encourage mobility, and replace some tasks with technology.

Solomon joined the firm as a partner in 1999 after stints with Bear Stearns, Drexel Burnham, and Salomon Brothers. He is a member of the management committee and cochairs the investment-banking division’s executive committee.

Solomon once gave life-changing career advice to Clippers guard J.J. Redick.

“What differentiates David from a lot of bankers is he’s a great leader and manager,” Alan Schwartz, the former CEO of Bear Stearns and now executive chairman at Guggenheim Partners, told Reuters in 2011. “A lot of people are just practitioners, but he knows how to inspire, manage, and lead other professionals.”

In a less traditional path to Wall Street than many of his peers, Solomon skipped the Ivy League and studied political science at Hamilton College in upstate New York. He has said he values his liberal-arts education for the communication, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills it afforded him.