Only 3% of Goldman’s MDs are technologists

So much for technologists becoming more important relative to front office staff in investment banks. Of the 266 new managing directors announced at Goldman Sachs yesterday, eight work in some sort of technology function, according to our research.

Proportionately, this is just 3% of the total number of MDs, which is low when you consider that 25% of total headcount at Goldman is in technology. With so many people working in IT, where are they in the top ranks? Lloyd Blankfein suggested this week that more resources are going to be if ploughed into technology, but this year’s crop of MDs shows a lack of investment in leadership.

Goldman declined to comment on the divisions its MDs work in.

However, our research suggests the new technology-focused MDs include: Angelo Curreli, who is based in New York and works as an IT manager; Hari Moorthy, currently a technology fellow and chief technology officer for risk management in New York; Grant Richard, who works in technology infrastructure, again in the US; Gunjan Samtani, head of banking technology, Asia Pacific and Bangalore, based in India; Laura Takacs, a technology professional based in New York; Robert Tankoos, a 13-year Goldman veteran based in Hong Kong; Martin Walsh, who has worked at the firm for over 16 years, latterly as in equities order management systems in New York and Chris Wells, global head of interest rate products technology in London.

To make it to managing director, technologists must prove their skills, leadership, passion and, importantly, have a track record of delivering.

“Goldman in particular places a great deal of emphasis on mentoring and rarely recruits senior technologists externally, so anyone making it to MD has to have shown evidence of this,” says Paul Bennie, managing director of IT in finance headhunters Bennie Maclean. “Generally, though, to make it managing director you must have achieved significant revenue generating opportunities through technology, or realized a tangible reduction in costs and have a history of designing and delivering technical solutions.”

Senior technology roles can be lucrative. Bennie suggests an MD should expect nearly $400,000 as a base salary, with total comp ranging from close to $800,000 to $1.6 million or more depending on management responsibilities and geographical spread of the role.

Despite the difficult job market this year, managing director recruitment has not been entirely dead in the water. UBS, for instance, hire Mark Ashton-Rigby as chief information officer for the investment bank from Deutsche Bank in May, while J.P Morgan and Deutsche has also been hiring, according to recruitment sources.

If technologists struggle to make it to senior roles at Goldman Sachs, they are at least better off than HR professionals. Goldman’s MD list only appears to include one person in this category: Stephen Markman, global head of experienced hiring.