Goldman co-head of banking and markets plans to exit after 29 years

One of Goldman Sachs Group's most senior executives, Jim Esposito, is leaving after almost three decades the at the firm.

Esposito helped run the bank's central trading and dealmaking business after he had pushed to combine the two operations. More recently, Esposito, 56, had emerged as one of the key internal critics of the bank's ill-fated foray into consumer banking, a line of business the the Wall Street giant has largely abandoned.

The executive was one of a handful of divisional leaders who aspired to a bigger role at the New York-based firm. But his standing had taken a hit after a vocal push to get Goldman to give up its desire to find new lines of business and refocus its attention on the group he led, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

"Lately, I've been consumed by a feeling of merely going through the motions which isn't in my DNA," Esposito wrote about his decision to leave. "Ultimately you reach a point where opportunities for change become more limited." 

He added "there's a strong pull to explore new adventures."    

Esposito started at Goldman in 1995, and had been a co-head of both the investment-banking division and the trading unit before being tapped as one of the three heads of the combined group now known as Global Banking & Markets. That unit, whose other leaders are Dan Dees and Ashok Varadhan, pulled in $30 billion last year, about two-thirds of Goldman's total revenue.

"I am grateful for Jim's counsel, friendship and sense of humor during our many years of collaboration," Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said in a memo to employees. 

A New Jersey native who had worked for Goldman in London in recent years, Esposito comes from a family with deep Wall Street ties. His brothers have also worked in the industry — one as a longtime Goldman partner and another as a banker at Morgan Stanley — and their father had been chief financial officer of Chase Manhattan Bank, now part of JPMorgan Chase.

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Esposito's planned departure was first reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier Monday.

Esposito and Dees gained notoriety within the firm in recent years for their quirky notes to Goldman clients that talked about changes sweeping across the business, but with tangential thoughts seeking to connect market moves to the news of the day. That sometimes meant Esposito talking about live-streaming college wrestling finals late into the London night, or tying asset prices to pop star Lady Gaga's stolen dogs, Koji and Gustav.

"Mine has been an unconventional GS career journey changing roles, divisions, and geographies multiple times," he said. "From Buffett to Beckham, I take with me countless memories engaging with iconic clients."