Goldman Names 94 'Partners'

Goldman Sachs designated 94 employees as partners, the top tier within the bank that was Wall Street's most profitable institution in recent years.

Although a bit of a misnomer since Goldman changed from a partnership to a public shareholder-owned company in 1999, the "partner" title still confers the right to a bigger share of Goldman's bonus pool than even the bank's non-partner managing directors enjoy. However, a shrinking bottom line is depleting that bonus pool this year. And Goldman's recent decisions to submit to regulation as a bank holding company and accept taxpayer funds as part of the industry bailout legislation, may cause bonuses to narrow further in coming years.

Two of this year's partners are Jan Hatzius, Goldman's chief U.S. economist, and L. Brooks Entwistle, chief executive of Goldman Sachs India, according to Bloomberg News.

The firm names a new partner MD class every two years. In 2006, 115 Goldman employees ascended to the partner level. As of a year ago, Goldman had 383 partners who reportedly received $600,000 base salary and averaged $8.6 million total compensation in 2006.