Partnerships at Goldman: Not Just For Bankers, Traders -- WSJ
October 11 2017 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Liz Hoffman
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (October 11, 2017).
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is hiring two technologists at the
elite rank of partner, including a new chief data officer, as Wall
Street's computer nerds continue to expand their power base.
Jeff Wecker will join as Goldman's chief data officer, with a
goal of helping the firm sort through, and in some cases begin to
sell, the reams of data it collects every day, the bank said
Tuesday. He comes from Bridgewater Associates, the world's biggest
hedge fund.
This is his second stint at Goldman, having spent a decade
trading derivatives for the bank in New York and Tokyo before
leaving in 1994. He later launched an early electronic-trading
platform at Lehman Brothers.
Goldman is also hiring Michael Blum, a veteran of high-frequency
trading firms KCG Holdings and Getco, to oversee technology in its
electronic-trading group.
Goldman has been revamping its trading systems to court
so-called quantitative hedge funds that crave speed. It has been
upgrading outdated technology, where executives acknowledge Goldman
had lost ground to rivals.
Both men's positions are new ones for Goldman, created under
Elisha Wiesel, who was promoted earlier this year to oversee the
firm's technology and engineering division.
Goldman has doubled its lateral hiring year-to-date, President
Harvey Schwartz said at an investor presentation last month, and
has been dangling partnerships for prized recruits. Opening up its
most elite ranks to outsiders is an acknowledgment that to grow the
firm must look beyond its homegrown talent.
That is especially true in technology, where Goldman fights for
talent with Silicon Valley. The firm, which has historically
preferred to build its own software from scratch, is increasingly
turning to open-source solutions that have worked elsewhere, and
hiring outsiders fluent in them.
"There was a long period of time, at Goldman and elsewhere,
where being insular was the thing to do," Mr. Wiesel said in an
interview. "But all this amazing new technology is being developed
outside, and there's value to being able to use that and hiring
people who are familiar with it.
"The mix of 'build' versus 'buy' versus 'download' is shifting,"
he said.
Ten percent of Goldman's 2016 partner class was engineers, up
from 8% in 2014. They now make up 6% of Goldman's 450 or so
partners, who are among the most richly paid executives on Wall
Street.
Write to Liz Hoffman at liz.hoffman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 11, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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