Goldman Sachs Securities Division Chiefs to Leave Firm -- Memo

By Liz Hoffman 

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is shaking up the leadership of its trading arm, which has struggled in recent years.

Pablo Salame and Isabelle Ealet, two of three executives who oversee Goldman's powerful securities division, will leave the firm next month, according to a memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Their exit leaves Ashok Varadhan as the sole head of the division at a firm that typically prefers multiple co-heads.

Goldman's traders have struggled to adapt to postcrisis changes in trading trends and market conditions. Revenue has fallen from a high of $33 billion in 2009 to $12 billion last year, and Goldman has ceded market share to rivals, especially in fixed-income trading.

Mr. Salame joined Goldman in 1996 and came up on the firm's emerging-markets trading desk. He has been in his current role since 2008, the longest-serving head of a Goldman division and one of few current Wall Street trading executives to have survived the crisis in a leadership role.

Ms. Ealet, a French national known as Izzy, joined in 1991 as a commodities trader and later ran that division.

Write to Liz Hoffman at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 14, 2018 10:58 ET (14:58 GMT)

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