Morning Coffee: The turgid tale of the Goldman Sachs & Citi bankers with competing job opportunities. M&A bankers on ice

If you work in banking and someone comes to you offering a new and better job on the buy-side, when should you take it and when should you allow yourself to be bought-back with a counteroffer from your existing employer? The divergent pathways of Mark Mason at Citi and John Waldron at Goldman Sachs offer instruction.

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Mark Mason has spent 25 years at Citi and became CFO there in 2019. In 2023, the Financial Times reported that private capital firm Carlyle hit Mason up to become its CEO. Mason didn't move on, but stayed at Citi, possibly in the hope of one day replacing the bank's CEO, Jane Fraser. 

John Waldron has spent 26 years at Goldman Sachs and became president and COO there in 2018. In 2024, private equity firm Apollo reportedly offered Waldron a new job and $500m. Waldron turned Apollo down and stayed at Goldman Sachs, seemingly in the hope of one day replacing CEO David Solomon.

It's now 2026, and Mason and Waldron's fates have diverged. Waldron has just been given an 18% pay rise at Goldman Sachs (to $45m) and is widely expected to replace Solomon when Solomon steps down. Mason has just been redefined as "executive vice chair" and "executive senior advisor" at Citi and is advertising his availability for CEO roles elsewhere in the Wall Street Journal.

On the basis that it's usually easier to get a new job when you already have one, Mason may now be heavily regretting that he didn't get the Carlyle position. It's not clear whether it was actually offered to him, but the man who did become Carlyle's CEO - ex-Goldman Sachs COO Harvey Schwartz - always seems to be smiling and was awarded pay of $187m in his first year in the role.

What are the learnings for other humans who suddenly find themselves approached to take big jobs at rival firms when their preference is climbing the ladder at existing employers?

Mason and Waldron are rarefied individuals who have opportunities that the average person does not, but their situations offer some universal truths. Firstly, if you're going to stay with an existing employer in hope of promotion, make sure you have a strong relationship with senior people who will promote you. - At Goldman Sachs, Waldron and Solomon have worked closely together for over 20 years. Solomon himself recruited Waldron to the firm in 2000 and Solomon is known for rewarding loyalty. At Citi, Mason is part of the 'old guard' that predates CEO Jane Fraser, who has been hiring her own people (Mason's replacement Gonzalo Luchetti is also part of the old guard, but he was moved into Mason's old role as CFO following a shakeup of the retail bank which strengthened Fraser's hire, Andy Sieg). 

Secondly, if you're going to be bought back, make sure you get a prompt indication that your current employer properly loves you and isn't going to wait for an opportunity to replace you once the dust has settled. At Goldman, Waldron (and Solomon) were given $80m each in stock retention awards in 2025 after it became apparent that Waldron was worth $500m elsewhere. We are not aware of anything comparable for Mason.

And lastly, make sure that if you stay, you're well positioned for the future. Waldron was appointed to Goldman's board of directors in February 2025 and presumably feels strategically empowered by this elevation. Mason, by comparison, seems to have spent the past few years in the trenches at Citi 'wrangling data sources and figuring out why basic customer data like zip codes weren’t loading into risk managers’ compliance tools.' None of this sounds like high-level strategy stuff. With Mason gone as CFO, Luchetti is signalling the start of a more interesting era,“shifting our mindset from remediation to innovation." One sounds more exciting than other. If anyone has a high level remediation role, Mason is free.

Separately, M&A bankers working in the oil and gas sector were feeling greasy a few weeks ago but now their cogs have seized dry.

The Financial Times reports that oil and gas deals are suddenly on hold by virtue of the war in the Middle East. “I have three or four disposal processes running and we have put them all on hold,” one senior banker informed the FT. “There is no point in taking bids, they will be all over the place.” 

The big question is whether other deals suffer a similar fate. Also writing in the FT, Mohamed El-Erian notes that Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will no longer have as much money to invest overseas. Given that they have been at the 'vanguard of investments in AI, life sciences and robotics,' this bodes badly for financing deals in all these sectors. In December, Bloomberg noted that Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth funds alone had $2 trillion to invest. In the past, they favoured everything from AI to auction houses and airlines. In the future, the drone manufacturing supply chain may be an unfortunate focus.

Meanwhile... 

UBS might "tactically slowdown" some of its investments because of the war. It will keep investing in AI, though. (Bloomberg) 

David Solomon says: "Higher levels of market volatility across various risk assets, elevated geopolitical uncertainty, and greater capital deployment, especially into AI, require diligent risk management.” (FT)

David Solomon also thinks M&A deals are making a comeback. “Now that there has been a change in the regulatory environment, boards and CEOs feel there is a greater likelihood that they can execute on strategic transactions to expand their scale or improve their competitive position”. Executives are taking a “much more front-footed approach” to deals. (Bloomberg) 

When Elon Musk was buying Twitter, he tweeted that the deal was on hold while he verified whether Twitter's accounts were real. The share price fell 10% and Musk bought Twitter at a discount. Now a jury has ruled that Musk's tweets were false and misleading and harmed some shareholders. (CNBC)

Goldman Sachs had 1m applications last year, up 33% on the year before. (Business Insider) 

Goldman Sachs paid Kathryn Ruemmler, who resigned after she featured in the Epstein files (but who denies any wrongdoing) $25m for last year. (Bloomberg) 

Already squeezed by electronification, credit traders are having to give more of their fees to platforms. (IFRE) 

First Point72 let go of Denis Dancanet, who was building a centralized trading unit. Now it's let go of Issam Bazzi, who was helping him but whose team was down $70m this year. (Business Insider) 

The City of London is full of ex-bankers in rented offices pretending to still work. (FT)  

This is probably not the time to fly to Dubai. At Dubai International Airport, at least 39 passenger planes have landed at or departed within five minutes on either side of a national warning of incoming fire. (WSJ)  

If you fly back from Dubai to the UK, do not expect tax leniency under the "exceptional circumstances" rule. “HMRC hardly did it during Covid. I don’t think they’re going to be very lenient." (FT)

New CV flex: say you're a "builder" creating things with AI. “Every single person and their mama is a builder. I’m still not entirely sure what that means.” (WSJ) 

Young people are choosing to do jobs IRL, like firefighting. (WSJ) 

Goldman Sachs says it's a great time to work in nail salons. (GS) 

Photo: Unsplash

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