Goldman Sachs chief investment officers up stakes

FWR Staff

13 December 2006

Nick Spencer and Paul Marson join a small exodus from the Wall Street bank. Goldman Sachs' wealth-management division lost two CIOs in one go earlier this month. Nick Spencer, CIO for the bank's U.S. private-client business, and Paul Marson, who filled a similar role for Goldman's international wealth business, have left -- seemingly in a bit of a huff.

Rumor has it

Goldman isn't saying why Spencer and Marson left, but rumor -- encapsulated in report by Financial News Online -- has it the duo had, as they say, issues with the way Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, the bank's global investment chief, is running things. Spencer and Marson, dab hands at alternative strategies, are said to have contributed pretty significantly to the profit surge Goldman's asset-management business has enjoyed over the past few years.

The departures of Spencer and Marson follow a re-org at Goldman that saw the creation of 10 new country and regional divisions in Europe and the Middle East. That, along with the decision to change pay structures, has proved controversial.

More substantially

Nicholas Sarkis and Philippe Lamis, advisors in France, left Goldman, as did distribution co-head Sameer Sain. Alexander Classen, head of Goldman's Swiss business, ditched out earlier this year to lead Morgan Stanley's high net worth business in Switzerland.

Goldman is hitting back, however. The bank recently recruited a Middle East team led by Farid Pasha, who used to be at Swiss bank UBS . René Mottas, former head of European business at Credit Suisse's Clariden private bank, has replaced Sain.

Goldman is trying to expand its wealth-management business on two fronts. First, it wants to rake in more $10-million-plus clients in established markets. At the same time, the New York-based bank is mounting a campaign to win assets from the emerging world's growing millionaire population.

The traditional core of Goldman's private-client business is a blue-chip list of powerful business leaders, many of whom run companies advised by Goldman's investment-banking unit. -FWR