作者：Paul J. Davies如果这是高盛集团（Goldman Sachs Group Inc.）开始从大卫·所罗门（David Solomon）向约翰·沃尔德伦（John Waldron）进行领导层交接的时刻，那么这一过渡应该像DJ混音巴利阿里群岛风格的酷炫节拍那样天衣无缝。任何不和谐的声音都可能源于首席执行官之下层级的权力斗争，资深银行家们将在那里为长期的影响力地位展开角逐。
By Paul J. Davies If this is the moment when Goldman Sachs Group Inc. begins its leadership succession from David Solomon to John Waldron, the transition should be as seamless as a DJ splicing cool Balearic beats. Any discord could come from power struggles at the level below chief executive officer, where senior bankers will jostle for positions of long-term influence.
针对《华尔街日报》关于现任总裁兼首席运营官沃尔德伦最早可能在2027年底接任最高职位、而所罗门将转任董事长的报道，高盛表示，董事会会定期讨论继任问题，但目前并没有明确的交接时间表。
In response to a Wall Street Journal report that Waldron, now president and chief operating officer, could take over the top job as soon as the end of 2027, with Solomon becoming chairman, Goldman Sachs said succession is regularly discussed by the board, but that there was no hard timetable for a handover.
对于以DJ D-Sol为艺名打碟这一爱好而闻名的所罗门来说，《华尔街日报》报道的时间点合情合理。毫无疑问，他会觉得自己的工作尚未完成，不会急于放弃职位，但他已经从早年在消费金融领域的失误中完全恢复过来，并让该行在交易撮合和交易业务方面重回巅峰。
For Solomon, who famously had a hobby spinning dance music under the moniker DJ D-Sol, the timing reported by the Journal makes sense. No doubt he will feel his job is unfinished and won’t be keen to give it up, but he has more than recovered from his early missteps in consumer finance and got the bank back on top in dealmaking and trading.
沃尔德伦一段时间以来一直在暗中紧追其老板的步伐，董事会也会警惕长期压制他的野心。尽管高盛通过目前价值1.2亿美元的额外留任奖金对他委以重任，但沃尔德伦仍可能被其他大型公司的顶级职位所吸引。据报道，当阿波罗全球管理公司（Apollo Global Management Inc.）在2024年向他抛出橄榄枝时，他曾一度接近离职。
Waldron has been subtly snapping at his boss’s heels for some time, and the board will be wary of trying to keep his ambition at bay for too long. Despite showering him in gold with an extra retention bonus currently worth $120 million, Waldron could still be tempted away by a top role at another major firm. He reportedly came close when Apollo Global Management Inc. courted him in 2024.
所罗门担任首席执行官的早期几年对高盛的体制造成了冲击。他于2018年从劳埃德·布兰克费恩（Lloyd Blankfein）手中接过帅印，决心让该行对投资者更加透明，并建立规模更大、更稳定的经常性收入来源，以降低利润波动。这两项举措旨在满足股东的需求，并提升高盛的股票估值。
Solomon’s early years as CEO were a shock to the system at Goldman. He took over from Lloyd Blankfein in 2018 with a determination to make the bank more transparent to investors and to build bigger sources of stable, recurring revenue that would make profits less volatile. Both moves were intended to give shareholders what they wanted and boost Goldman’s stock valuation.
布兰克费恩曾通过在线储蓄平台Marcus进军消费市场，所罗门将其视为实现其战略目标的跳板。然而，这项业务远超高盛的专业范畴。高盛虽然赢得了苹果公司这一大客户，为其发行了新信用卡，但却在很大程度上受制于这家科技公司对贷款机构运营方式的要求，且难以管控向普通民众发放贷款所固有的亏损风险。
Blankfein had launched a move into consumer markets with Marcus, an online savings platform, and Solomon saw that as a springboard for his strategic goals. However, the business was well outside of Goldman’s expertise. It won Apple Inc. as the major client for a new credit card but allowed itself to be led too much by the technology company’s demands for how the lender should operate and struggled to manage the risk of losses inherent in underwriting debt for ordinary people.
在所罗门任内，高盛还收购了家居装修贷款机构GreenSky，但这被证明是一笔糟糕的交易。随后，高盛合伙人之间爆发了罕见的公开反抗，所罗门的职位一度似乎真的岌岌可危。这种僵局部分源于文化冲击：一些合伙人尚未完全接受他们不再是银行所有者的事实，也未能接受所罗门经营银行并非为了他们，而是为了公众股东。
Goldman also bought home-improvement lender GreenSky under Solomon, which turned out to be a terrible deal. The subsequent rebellion among Goldman partners was unusually public and his position briefly seemed under real threat. This standoff was partly born of culture shock: Some partners hadn’t fully accepted that they were no longer the owners of the bank, and that Solomon was running it not for them but instead for the public shareholders.
在1999年高盛上市之前，合伙人掌握控制权时那种“宫廷政变”已不再可能发生。尽管泄密事件针对的是个人，且有时让所罗门感到痛苦，但他最终还是挺了过来。
Palace coups of the sort that had happened when the partners were in control before the bank’s 1999 stock market listing were no longer possible. The leaks were personal and at times painful for Solomon, but he survived.
如果沃尔德伦担任首席执行官，他与所罗门的区别可能更多在于风格而非实质。两人的投资银行职业生涯几乎平行，都曾在贝尔斯登工作过，随后在千禧年之交前后加入高盛。两人都是交易撮合者而非交易员，不过沃尔德伦在早期就与市场部门的领导者建立了良好的关系，从而扩大了自己的支持基础。
As CEO, Waldron would likely differ from Solomon in style more than substance. The two have had almost parallel careers in investment banking, both having passed through Bear Stearns before landing at Goldman at around the turn of the millennium. Both are dealmakers more than traders, though early on, Waldron nurtured relationships with leaders in the markets division, broadening his support.
他们在个人表现上给人的印象截然不同。所罗门性格粗鲁、直率，而沃尔德伦则善于交际、细心周到。在交谈时，他能长时间保持不眨眼的注视——这种专注感强烈但并不会让人感到不适。他看起来更像是一位外交家，这有助于应对未来人工智能改变银行家工作方式及薪酬模式时可能带来的动荡。
They come across differently in person. Where Solomon can be gruff and blunt, Waldron is engaging and attentive. In conversation, he can maintain unblinking eye contact for an eerily long time — it’s intense but not discomfiting. He seems more the diplomat, which would help with the upheavals that may lie ahead as artificial intelligence changes how bankers work and earn their pay.
尽管如此，沃尔德伦偶尔也会犯些低级错误，比如今年在接受CNBC电视采访时，他将高盛的员工称为“人类流水线”，并称其终将被数字化。作为身居高位的高管，他最好还是收敛一下咨询师、技术专家和银行家们惯用的工业术语，多关注公司的人文层面。
Still, Waldron has made the occasional clanger, as when he referred to Goldman’s people as a “human assembly line” that would become digitized, during a CNBC TV appearance this year. In the corner office, he would do well to suppress the industrial jargon of consultants, technologists and bankers, and focus on the human aspect of the firm.
沃尔德伦还必须处理好那些自视为未来首席执行官候选人之间可能爆发的权力斗争。值得关注的三个人选分别是：共同负责全球银行与市场业务的丹·迪斯（Dan Dees）和阿肖克·瓦拉丹（Ashok Varadhan），以及负责资产与财富管理部门的马克·纳赫曼（Marc Nachmann）。
Waldron would also have to manage any power struggles that blow up among those who might see themselves as future CEO candidates. Three to watch are Dan Dees and Ashok Varadhan, who co-head global banking and markets, and Marc Nachmann, who runs the asset and wealth management arm.
迪斯和瓦拉丹目前正分别监管着投资银行和交易业务的强劲增长，而纳赫曼则通过一系列收购，旨在使高盛在私募市场和基金管理领域成为一股更强大（且更具盈利能力）的力量。如果他们在高层改组中感到被冷落而选择离开，对公司来说将是巨大的损失。
Dees and Varadhan are overseeing a spectacular boom in investment banking and trading, respectively, while Nachmann has pursued a string of acquisitions aimed at making Goldman a bigger (and more profitable) force in private markets and fund management. It would be painful to lose any of them if they end up feeling slighted in a reshuffle.
纳赫曼的工作对于高盛的演变而言或许最为重要。扩大他的业务规模是所罗门持续推行增加稳定利润战略的关键，这也极有可能是这位首席执行官认为自己尚未完成的使命所在。但如果现在确实到了所罗门准备放手的时候，他至少可以感到欣慰，因为他已经让这家银行重回正轨。
Nachmann’s job is probably the most important for Goldman’s evolution. Growing his business is key to Solomon’s ongoing strategy of adding stable profits — and likely the area where the CEO will see his mission as incomplete. But if this really is the time for Solomon to prepare to let go, he can at least be satisfied that he got the bank back on the right track. To contact the author of this story: at pdavies52@bloomberg.net