David Michael Solomon (born c. 1962) is an American investment banker serving as the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, since 2018. Previous to his assumption of the presidency, he jointly served as the head of the investment banking division at the firm from July 2006 to December 2016. Although no succession plans have been finalized, Solomon was designated the sole heir apparent to Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs in February 2018.
Solomon recreationally produces electronic dance music (EDM) records under the stage name DJ D-Sol (dee-saul). He has performed at nightclubs and music festivals around New York, Miami, and the Bahamas.
Video David M. Solomon
Early life and career
David Michael Solomon was born circa 1962 in Hartsdale, New York. His father, Alan Solomon, was an executive vice president of a small publishing company, and his mother, Sandra, worked as an audiology supervisor. He grew up in Scarsdale, New York where he worked at a local Baskin Robbins before working as a camp counselor in New Hampshire. He graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science and government. In college he played on the rugby team and chaired his social fraternity.
Solomon first worked for Irving Trust before working for Drexel Burnham in 1986. At Drexel Solomon first worked as a paper salesman and transitioned into junk bonds. His exposure to high-yield debt prompted him to join Bear Stearns. At Bear Stearns he was charged with leading the junk bonds division and selling higher-risk bonds. On one occasion, he assisted a struggling movie theater company in Dallas, Texas raise money through a "complicated bond transaction".
Maps David M. Solomon
Goldman Sachs
He worked with a variety of Goldman Sachs managers during the late 1990s which inspired his move to the firm in 1999 to work with their leveraged finance team as a partner, aged 37. His move from Bear Stearns was "shocking" to contemporaries who believed him to be on the "leadership track at Bear". Starting in 2006, he was promoted to and spent the next ten years leading Goldman's investment banking division. In July 2007, he secured the initial public offering (IPO) of LuLulemon Athletica by wearing a maroon blazer and sweatpants, a sampling of the company's clothing to "throw everyone off" in a suit-required meeting. During his time as head, he implemented "year-end compensation roundtables" where he would pepper the executives with questions about their business practices in order to "weed out underperformers". Upon his departure, he was credited with professionalizing the investment banking division and doubling profit margins from 11% to 22% with sales rising by 70%. In April 2014, Sheldon Adelson, a client of his from Drexel, offered Solomon operational control over the Las Vegas Sands casinos. Solomon declined the offer because Adelson "wasn't willing to give up day-to-day control, and [he] didn't want to be an understudy." After Gary Cohn resigned from Goldman to become the Chief Economic Advisor to Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, Solomon was elevated to president and co-chief operating officer along with Harvey Schwartz in December 2016.
On March 12, 2018 Goldman announced that Schwartz, the company's co-chief operating officer and president would be resigning, leaving Solomon as the second-in-command. Hours after the announcement, media outlets-both domestic and international-informally designated Solomon as Lloyd Blankfein's sole heir apparent. During a board meeting on February 21, 2018 Blankfein expressed an interest and preference for Solomon to succeed him.
Firm employment
Solomon has repeatedly advocated for a reformation of Goldman's company culture. He expressed an interest in lowering the maximum hours worked during normal business days from somewhere near 90 hours a week, to somewhere near 70 to 75 hours a week, when not actively engaged in closing a deal. Prior to assuming the company's presidency, he tracked the hours worked by his subordinates and frequently stepped in to send employees home. In a series of interviews in October 2017, Solomon detailed his advice for students and futures employees at Goldman: know how to write and speak publicly; know accounting; never lose sight of what you are passionate about. Under Solomon's leadership, the bank has increased pay for programmers, loosened dress codes, modernized computer systems, instated video interviews, and created a "real-time performance review" system for new employees.
Compensation
Despite the company not disclosing his total compensation packages, SEC and IRS filings indicate that Solomon was paid a base salary of US$1.85 million with an award of restricted stock worth about $10 million in January 2015. Solomon received the same salary and compensation package in January 2017 and January 2018. It is estimated that Solomon holds 224,030 (0.059%) shares of Goldman Sachs Group (GS) which was valued at $60 million in January 2018.
Political positions
Solomon donated $5,000 to Hillary Clinton and $5,000 to Jeb Bush during the 2016 presidential election.
Philanthropy
Solomon served on Hamilton College's board of trustees from 2005 to 2018. He also serves on the board of directors of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization which attempts to alleviate problems caused by poverty in New York City.
Personal life
Solomon married Mary Elizabeth Solomon (born Coffey) in 1989 when they were both 27 years old in Bernardsville, New Jersey. He has resided in The San Remo on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City from 2002 onward. He listed the apartment for $24 million in May 2016. He purchased a 13,000-square-foot estate in Aspen, Colorado in 2004 for $4 million and listed it for $36 million in July 2016. In January 2018, Solomon's 1,000-bottle Manhattan wine collection was burglarized by a former personal assistant; of the hundreds of bottles stolen, seven were from the French estate Domaine de la Romanee-Conti. The personal assistant was arrested in late January and indicted for the theft of $1.2 million dollars worth of wine.
He recreationally performs monthly gigs as a disc jockey under the stage name "DJ D-Sol" (dee-saul) producing a variety of electronic dance music. He has performed at nightclubs and music festivals around New York, Miami, and the Bahamas. Solomon maintains the Instagram account "@djsolmusic" to catalogue his exploits as a music producer. On January 9, 2018, he released a remix of Fleetwood Mac's song, "Don't Stop". Hours after its release, the song was played on Sirius XM's BPM: Electronic Dance Music Hits at 9:14 pm EST. Solomon performed a remix of The Pink Panther Theme at a charity event for the opioid epidemic hosted by Hamilton College on April 8, 2018.
See also
- List of Hamilton College people
- List of club DJs
Notes
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia