Goldman Sachs replaces Lloyd Blankfein as CEO with a 56-year-old banker who moonlights as a DJ at clubs all over the world

  • David Solomon, otherwise known as DJ D-Sol, is to succeed Lloyd Blankfein
  • Will begin new role as CEO on October 1 and become Goldman chairman in 2019
  • The banker is known for his love of parties and is into electronic dance music

Goldman Sachs is replacing chief executive Lloyd Blankfein with a 56-year-old banker who moonlights as a DJ at clubs across the world.  

David Solomon, otherwise known as DJ D-Sol, is to succeed Blankfein, 63, a Wall Street veteran of the financial crisis who is retiring as CEO of Goldman Sachs after 12 years at the helm of the investment bank.

Solomon, who was paid nearly $17 million in 2017, is a long-time Goldman executive who has been considered Blankfein's chosen successor since earlier this year. 

Chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs David Solomon, above, is to succeed Lloyd Blankfein as CEO and chairman

Chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs David Solomon, above, is to succeed Lloyd Blankfein as CEO and chairman

He will begin his new role as CEO on October 1 and become chairman of Goldman in 2019.

Solomon's double life has seen him photographed with musicians such as Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, as the banker is known for his love of parties and is into electronic dance music.

He has performed at events in Miami, the Bahamas and Los Angeles, and believes in a healthy work-life balance.

Sean 'Diddy' Combs and David Solomon, the banker who plays electronic dance music

Sean 'Diddy' Combs and David Solomon, the banker who plays electronic dance music

David Solomon's 'personal mantra is to never lose sight of what you are passionate about'

David Solomon's 'personal mantra is to never lose sight of what you are passionate about'

Last month, Solomon released his first single under his DJ name: a cover of Fleetwood Mac's song 'Don't Stop'. 

Yesterday's succession announcement came as Goldman announced a 44 per cent jump in second-quarter profit from a year ago. 

The performance was largely driven by the investment bank's core franchises: advising companies on mergers, acquisitions and other deals, and its trading business.

New CEO: part-time DJ 

Solomon did not come up through Goldman's traditional ranks and culture – making him somewhat of an outsider and poised to make more substantial changes at the firm.  

He studied political science and government, before his move to Goldman in 1999, when he joined as a partner. 

Solomon held the title of co-chief operating officer along with Harvey Schwartz until Schwartz retired in February, after the latter threatened to resign unless named chief executive.

David Solomon, 56, moonlights as a DJ at major clubs around the world under the name D-Sol

David Solomon, 56, moonlights as a DJ at major clubs around the world under the name D-Sol

Aside from DJ-ing at gigs, and posting photos of his club nights on Instagram, Solomon's biography on Spotify, where he has 550,509 monthly listeners, says: 'His personal mantra is to never lose sight of what you are passionate about.'

And in a Goldman Sachs podcast last year, he said: ‘If you can’t find a way to have passions and pursue passions and mix them into your professional life and personal life in some way, shape or form, it’s just harder to have the energy to keep on doing this.’

Aside from playing electronic dance music at gigs, the investment banker is also a yoga practitioner. 

Away from Goldman, David Solomon is sometimes better known for moonlighting as a DJ

Away from Goldman, David Solomon is sometimes better known for moonlighting as a DJ

However, he is aware that his part-time job will not help to improve the public's views of the banking sector, saying: 'I don't know whether seeing a president of Goldman Sachs spinning tunes at a club is going to change the perception of the industry.

'We have a lot of work to do on that front.' 

Despite that, Blankfein said that Solomon, 'is the right person to lead Goldman Sachs. 

The banker is also a yoga practitioner, and plays electronic dance music

The banker is also a yoga practitioner, and plays electronic dance music

'He has demonstrated a proven ability to build and grow businesses, identified creative ways to enhance our culture and has put clients at the center of our strategy.'

Solomon said he was 'honored and humbled' to take over.

Lloyd Blankfein: son of a postal worker 

The current CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, who is retiring

The current CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, who is retiring

A long-time Goldman employee who rose through the ranks in commodity trading business, Blankfein believes banks serve a social purpose and are doing 'God’s work'.  

Blankfein also said in an interview in 2009 that banks are ‘very important’ as they are part of a ‘virtuous cycle’ which helps create wealth and grow companies.

He took the reins of Goldman Sachs in 2006, not long before the Great Recession and financial crisis. 

Goldman and its competitors accumulated billions of dollars of toxic assets on their books – bad mortgages, collateralized debt obligations and other illiquid assets.

In the darkest days of the crisis, it was thought Goldman Sachs may not survive. 

By late 2008, some of Goldman's key rivals – Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch – were either bought in distressed sales or, in the case of Lehman, went bankrupt.

Blankfein moved quickly to save the firm from its near-death experience, tapping the Federal Reserve's emergency programs set up to keep banks from failure. 

Eventually and reluctantly, Goldman took money from the $700 billion TARP bailout program, which it repaid. 

He pushed the firm's trading desks to aggressively take positions through the market's volatility and in 2009, only a year after the crisis, Goldman reported record earnings driven largely by trading revenue.

'Lloyd's market savvy, intellect, energy, enthusiasm, charm and quick wit have helped him successfully steer Goldman Sachs through the financial crisis and position it for the future while earning him great respect and affection inside the firm and from friends and clients around the world,' said Hank Paulson, who was CEO of Goldman Sachs before Blankfein. 

He left the firm to become Treasury Secretary for President George W. Bush.

But the efforts gave Goldman and Blankfein, a son of a postal worker who grew up in housing projects, few fans outside of Wall Street in the early years after the crisis.

Blankfein worked to rehabilitate the bank's image

Blankfein worked to rehabilitate the bank's image

The bank came under heavy criticism that it directly benefited from the 2008 government bailout of insurance giant AIG, and was just as responsible for creating the revolving door of toxic mortgages that led to the crisis. 

There were also accusations that Goldman's bankers took bets on the mortgage market against their clients' own positions.

Goldman Sachs' employees, among the best paid in finance, continued to be paid well despite the mess Wall Street left for the rest of the country. 

A scathing article written for Rolling Stone nicknamed Goldman Sachs 'the great vampire squid,' a term that stuck for years. The months-long Occupy Wall Street movement portrayed Goldman as a villain.

Congress eventually passed a law, the Dodd-Frank Act, which imposed new restrictions on Goldman's business. The firm was bought under the oversight of the Federal Reserve, and is now subject to annual 'stress tests' like other big banks.

Lloyd Blankfein has diversified Goldman's businesses beyond traditional trading and advising

Lloyd Blankfein has diversified Goldman's businesses beyond traditional trading and advising

Blankfein worked to rehabilitate the bank's image, and diversify Goldman's businesses beyond the traditional trading and advising. 

Goldman Sachs now offers online savings accounts and personal loans to consumers, and there are plans for it to enter the credit card business – all businesses that Goldman shunned before the financial crisis.

'Our firm has demonstrated great resiliency and strength over the last 12 years,' Blankfein said in a statement issued Tuesday.

In recent years, he has appeared to become more comfortable and open, for example joining Twitter, where he regularly makes veiled criticism of President Donald Trump and his administration. 

The once buttoned-up executive grew a beard, and has been more recently photographed without a necktie than with one.

Blankfein's retirement will leave Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, as the last head of a Wall Street firm who was around during the financial crisis. 

Kenneth Chenault, who led American Express through the crisis, retired earlier this year.

Goldman shares fell less than one per cent yesterday and are down about 10 per cent so far this year, making it the worst performer among the big banking companies in the S&P 500.

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