Goldman Sachs' Top Trader Earning More Than CEO 'Surprising Resignation'

Jo Montesano (46), who led the stock trading team at the American investment bank Goldman Sachs and delivered top performance, has reportedly resigned, causing a stir in the international financial community. Attention is focused on the background as an executive who earned a higher salary than David Solomon, Goldman Sachs' CEO, made a surprise departure. There are even forecasts that Goldman Sachs' stock trading division revenue could decrease by 6%.

Joe Montesano (Image source=own SNS)

On the 6th (local time), foreign media including Bloomberg reported that Montesano, head of Americas stock trading at Goldman Sachs, left the company. Sources said he resigned to take a break and has not yet decided where to move after leaving.

Montesano was one of the key executives leading Goldman Sachs. Especially during the past three years, when there was a stock investment boom following the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, he played a leading role in enabling Goldman Sachs to generate more revenue than competitors' stock trading teams.

Goldman Sachs' cumulative revenue from 2021 to 2022 reached $23 billion. Of this, stock revenue in 2022 was $11 billion, nearly a 50% increase compared to 2019. With this revenue, Goldman Sachs maintained its position as the industry leader in stock trading, surpassing JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.

Montesano is reported to have received a higher salary than CEO Solomon's $35 million in 2021 in recognition of these achievements. Goldman Sachs developed a system to predict which stocks would be added or removed from benchmarks based on merger issues and revenue fluctuations, and Montesano appears to have achieved great success managing and supervising this program.

On Wall Street, there are forecasts that Goldman Sachs' profitability will deteriorate due to Montesano's departure. Analysts expect Goldman Sachs' stock trading revenue to decrease by about 6% compared to before. Bloomberg added, "Nevertheless, it will maintain a considerably high level compared to the pre-pandemic period."

Montesano graduated from Yale University and joined Goldman Sachs in 1999, serving for 24 years. With Montesano's resignation, the number of executives who recently left Goldman Sachs has increased to four. Recently, Steven Share, Goldman Sachs' Chief Investment Officer (CIO), Greg Ramka, co-head of investment banking, and Eric Lane, co-head of asset management, have also left Goldman Sachs.

Earlier, CEO Solomon explained at the 'Investor Day' event on the 28th of last month, "The turnover rate of Goldman Sachs employees is at an all-time low over the past five years," adding, "The frequency of partners transitioning is also at a low level."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.