One of Goldman's most senior traders just retired post-bonus

If you work for Goldman Sachs, your 2016 bonus is pretty much in the bank. You're therefore free to find somewhere else to work, or to leave banking and do something entirely different. Guy Saidenberg, the London-based global head of Goldman Sachs sales strats and structuring, has opted for the latter: he's retiring.

A University of Chicago graduate, Saidenberg joined Goldman in 1999 as an associate on the London rates desk. He went on to work across products and geographies, becoming head of European equity exotics trading, head of Asia structured products trading and head of FX trading and global co-head of commodities trading. Something of a prodigy, he became MD after just five years, and partner after just six.

In the memo announcing Saidenberg's exit, Goldman noted that he had, "mentored and recruited," may of the firm's traders in equities, FX, commodities and emerging markets. As we reported in 2014, Goldman hired a global head of FX trading from J.P. Morgan just two months after promoting Saidenberg into that role. Nonetheless, Saidenberg seems to have moved into commodities trading and then strats and stayed with the firm.

It's not clear what he plans to do next. Last year, large swathes of Goldman partners retired after receiving their bonuses.  Saidenberg marks the first such exit in 2017. Goldman cut average compensation per head by nearly 8% across the firm last year, although its not clear how this impacted the strats division. Saidenberg's departure leaves an interesting vacancy at the top of strats. Goldman said Saidenberg had been helping to, "evolve the Securities Division’s digital strategy to improve our workflow and delivery to clients," implying that he was one of the senior people steering products like Marquee that enable clients to interact with Goldman directly. His absence creates an opportunity for the next generation of strats and quantitative traders.  Goldman hired Tom Leake from Deutsche Bank as head of EMEA structuring last November.

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com