Morning Coffee: Goldman Sachs' "fierce, big energy" partner has big fans. The bank firing 9,000 people and hiring 3,500 younger ones
Marc Nachmann is a big deal at Goldman Sachs. He's one of David Solomon's fixers and was made head of the firm's global head of asset and wealth management business last year when Solomon decided the firm needed to grow the unit. There are suggestions that he might even replace Solomon one day.
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Nachmann can be demanding and curt. He's also credited with being "very smart" and with getting things done. A public validation by Marc Nachmann is therefore a big deal, and it seems there's one partner in Goldman's asset and wealth management that 54 year-old Nachmann is a particular fan of: 47-year-old Sara Naison-Tarajano.
Speaking to Institutional Investor, Nachmann says Naison-Tarajano is unusual at Goldman by virtue of her "big personality, big energy" vibe, but that being a "big" person has served her well there. She's built Goldman's Apex Group, which works with 600 family offices and helps them invest directly into private markets.
The daughter of an academic and school-teacher, Naison-Tarajano is the mother of three daughters, one of whom is biracial as her first husband was Black. She married and had her first daughter straight after college, and says she didn't talk much about her family in her early years working in investment banking and then derivatives for Goldman. Then she realized male colleagues were talking about their families and she did the same.
Naison-Tarajano was promoted to managing director (MD) in 2012 and to partner in 2020, even though she says she was never fixated on achieving either. She didn't even want to work for Goldman much when she applied - she planned to stay for a year, but is still there 25 years later.
Nachmann isn't her only fan. Alex Virolle, a managing director in private wealth management in Paris, likes Naison-Tarajano too. When he met her 10 years ago, Virolle said he found her "intense and direct," which is usually a euphemism for being a bit scared. Apparently not: the intensity is a fine thing, says Virolle. Naison-Tarajano puts it to good use - Institutional Investor says she's a "fierce" advocate for people in need, including female colleagues who need a bit of leeway at the firm while they raise their families. People at Goldman want to work for her as a result.
Separately, while juniorisation remains a common complaint in banking, few banks are explicit about it. Except, it seems, the Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo. The Financial Times reports that Intesa Sanpaolo plans to cut 9,000 jobs as it embarks upon its exciting journey of 'digital transformation.' These will include 4,000 people nudged into early retirement. At the same time, however, it wants to hire 3,500 new "young professionals" in the next four years to sell things like wealth management and insurance. Magic.
Meanwhile...
British prime minister Keir Starmer says that if you own shares, you're not a working person. (Financial Times)
A mysterious French trader is betting $45m that Trump will win the election. (Bloomberg)
Bank of America head of markets Jim Demare says the day after a US election is usually a fine time for traders and that this year will be no different. (Yahoo)
Crispin Odey has been reinstated at Odey Asset Management, but it's no longer authorized by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to carry out activities such as managing customer money. (Bloomberg)
The FCA found that bankers who harass people in London rarely have their pay docked. Salaries are only cut in 1-3% of cases and bonuses are rarely clawed back. In the few cases where pay is docked, future bonuses are often cut. (Guardian)
75% of UK financial services chiefs are planning to increase office attendance over the next 12 months. (Bloomberg)
A top-performing Chinese quantitative hedge fund offered zero performance fees to keep investors from quitting after suffering record losses. (Bloomberg)
Morgan Stanley has got something called AskResearchGPT, which gives its bankers and traders access to the most recent research information. (Finextra)
Suddenly, everyone wants to do an MBA. (WSJ)
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