It has been one incredible week for one Nigerian lady at the urban investment unit, UIG at Goldman Sachs, the global banking institution where she has just been made a partner.
Margaret Chinwe Anadu, is head of Goldman’s urban investment group and days ago, she was called by new CEO David Solomon telling her she had been promoted.
“When I joined 15 years ago, I never thought that I could be a managing director, much less a partner,” said the Nigerian banker who also holds an American passport.
Ms Anadu joined Goldman’s analyst programme directly after graduating from Harvard in 2003 and sees the promotion of so many diverse partners was the result of years of work Goldman has done to support diverse talent.
This year’s partners group of 69 was the smallest in 20 years and most people who wanted to be made partner missed out. “It is certainly difficult . . . to be a recipient of something and know that others are not,” said Ms Anadu, who sees her elevation as a vote of confidence not just in her but in the impact investing her team is doing.
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“There are 34 people in Urban Investment Group, UIG or who work closely with UIG. We all got promoted today.” She said one of the first calls she got to congratulate her was from a colleague who was hoping for promotion but was passed over.
Although Goldman has not been a true partnership since its 1999 stock market listing, partner titles are still a golden ticket, offering base salaries of $950,000, membership of the bank’s most influential committees and exclusive investment opportunities.
On Wednesday 69 people received the call, literally, as Goldman’s new chief executive David Solomon and president John Waldron personally dialled around to give the good news to those who made it.
The newcomers include a London-based husband and wife and a thirtysomething trader who once reportedly made a $100m profit in a few months. There are now 484 partners in a firm of 36,600 staff.
Women were better represented than ever before, accounting for 26 per cent of this year’s crop, though even after the latest promotions women will hold just 17 per cent of the total partner seats.
“We could continue to do a much better job on that front, and with David at the helm I think we will do a much better job,” said Mr O’Brien. “It’s very important for all the businesses that we’re in.” Heather Kennedy Miner, Goldman’s head of investor relations, is one of the newly-promoted women. “I absolutely did not expect it,” she said.
“It’s an incredibly opaque process.” She found out when she stepped out to take a call at a risk committee meeting, which included some people who already knew of her promotion.
She then had to sit through another 55 minutes of the meeting, trying to look “very calm and composed” and was sworn to secrecy until the official announcement was made some four hours later.
As head of IR, Ms Kennedy Miner is one of the people who will have to make good on Goldman’s new management team’s pledge to be more transparent. “I work at Goldman Sachs, I’ve worked hard my whole life,” she said of the extra work that may involve. “It’s an incredibly exciting time.”
Not everyone takes missing out so well; the Financial Times reported earlier in the week about a London-based equities specialist who quit because he did not make the cut.
One person involved in the partner selection process said: “the circle of disappointed people (always) extends to people who are understandably disappointed to disappointed people who really shouldn’t be, to people who have absolutely no reason to be disappointed.
Anointing fewer partners this year will not cause more disillusionment, the person believed. “If you think about the number who aspire to be partner, the delta of 15 doesn’t make your job infinitely harder or not (awarding partnerships),” he said.
Partners typically remain in situ for six to eight years, sources at the bank told the FT, and every year a handful quietly step back from the partner ranks in a move called de-partnering. Some do it by choice, some are asked to make way for others. Some re-enter the partnership at a later stage.
However, de-partnering is a long way from the thoughts of the class of 2018, who also include a London-based married couple Beat and Niharika Cabiallavetta and the “$100m trader” Thomas Malafronte, who works for Goldman’s New York securities division and made the newspapers in 2016 for making a nine-figure trading profit.
Laura Noonan, FT
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