"He’s turned Goldman Sachs into Bear Stearns. He doesn’t understand the difference between a dictatorship and a partnership" - an insider source said about Goldman Sachs' (NYSE:GS) CEO David Solomon in recent comments made to the New York Post.
Solomon, the bank's head since 2018, is reportedly facing internal backlash over "skimpy bonuses, his costly, botched venture into consumer banking, and a slew of high-level executive departures" and is now "vulnerable to getting the boot if business takes a bad turn."
Solomon's lifestyle and public image have reportedly also been a hot topic for critics within the company who cite "his DJing, his use of the corporate jet, and his frequent trips to the Bahamas."
"The board is starting to re-evaluate. David may have a problem with the board room. No one wants to see someone is at war with their senior execs" - one of the sources reportedly said, adding "the board no longer has plausible deniability about what’s going on.”
Despite the seeming uproar, the "major problem with ousting Solomon" is that "the bench of potential successors isn’t deep, with many having left over the last few years."
The piece names John Waldron, GS' president and COO, and Dan Dees, co-head of global banking & markets as potential successors should a change at the helm take place.
The current CEO also reportedly still maintains a strong base of allies, as "some Goldman insiders believe tales of Solomon’s demise are exaggerated and say it is just a disagreement of style over substance."
The NYP article follows a similarly toned piece the Wall Street Journal published earlier this week, claiming a "civil war" is raging inside the bank.