Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon was awarded $31 million in compensation for 2023, up 24 percent from the $25 million he made in 2022, the company said in a filing on Friday.
The healthy pay bump comes after the bank’s profit fell 24 percent to $8.52 billion in 2023, a year that saw Goldman retreat from an ill-fated foray into consumer banking.
Still, shares of Goldman Sachs gained some 12 percent on the year to close out 2023, as its streamlined strategy and the prospect of lower interest rates attracted investors.
Solomon’s 2023 pay comprises a $2 million base salary, unchanged from the previous year, and a bonus of $8.7 million in cash and $20.3 million in performance-linked stock, the bank said.
‘The Compensation Committee believes that the actions of senior management were critical to reorienting the firm with a much stronger platform for 2024 and beyond,’ Goldman disclosed in its regulatory filing, in reference to the pay hike.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon was awarded $31 million in compensation for 2023, up 24 percent from the $25 million he made in 2022
Among peers on Wall Street, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s compensation climbed 4.3 percent to $36 million in 2023, while Morgan Stanley’s former CEO James Gorman earned 17 percent higher to $37 million.
Goldman’s foray into consumer banking, which lost $3 billion over three years, continued to weigh on profits last year as the company exited the business.
The Wall Street giant is better prepared for a recovery in capital markets in 2024 as it refocuses on its core dealmaking and trading businesses, executives said last month.
‘I’m encouraged by capital markets activity. I’m not going to say it’s running back to 10-year averages right away, but it has materially improved,’ CEO David Solomon said when the company announced fourth quarter results last month.
‘When I look broadly, it feels better,’ with more share offerings, debt and equity issuance expected this year.
Goldman’s equity trading revenue jumped 26 percent in the fourth quarter.
While Goldman’s trading revenue jumped, its investment banking fees fell 12 percent to $1.65 billion amid an ongoing slump in dealmaking.
Meanwhile, Solomon has quit his ‘side hustle’ as a DJ following criticism that it was a distraction from his work leading the investment bank.
Meanwhile, Solomon has quit his ‘side hustle’ as a DJ following criticism that it was a distraction from his work leading the investment bank
Solomon’s last high-profile DJ performance was at Chicago’s Lollapalooza music festival in July 2022, following which he decided to wind down his performances due to unwanted media attention, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times last October.
The 61-year-old executive, whose compensation package at Goldman totaled $25 million last year, started DJing under the stage name ‘D-Sol’ in 2015 and founded his own record label in 2018, donating all proceeds to charities that fight addiction.
But according to FT, he decided to back off the hobby after it drew criticism from disgruntled bankers within Goldman, who were angry about lower pay and perceived strategic missteps at the bank.
A Goldman spokesman told the outlet: ‘This is not news. David hasn’t publicly DJed an event in well over a year, which we have confirmed multiple times in the past.’