Goldman Sachs persuades long-term contractor to join as an ED

Goldman Sachs has succeeded in bringing on board a long-term consultant, who specializes in electronic trading, as an executive director in London.

Vaida Misoni comes with over 16 years of experience, of which she spent a decade as a consultant. Since consultants charge per hour and earn at least 20 percent more than that of a full-time employee, Misoni’s decision to join Goldman comes as a surprise. It is likely that the firm gave her an offer that made it worth his while to join.

Misoni started her career with Gulf International Bank in 2001 and worked as an application programmer for three years. Before becoming an equities algorithmic trading consultant for Royal Bank of Scotland in 2007, she worked with UBS, Barclays, and Merrill Lynch where her roles focussed on equities trading technology, equity derivatives technology and prime brokerage technology, respectively.

In 2012, she joined Deutsche Bank as a monitoring consultant and moved on to become an electronic trading consultant for Bank of America Merrill Lynch three years later. Prior to joining Goldman this January, he was a consultant for HSBC Global Banking and Markets, a role which she took up in the second half of 2016.

Misoni's appointment is in line with Goldman’s focus on lateral hiring at senior levels, as it attempts to turn itself around, and comes at a time when it is strengthening its presence in electronic trading. During a presentation in September 2017, co-COO Harvey Schwartz said the bank had doubled its lateral hiring in the year to date. Earlier this January, the firm hired three more managing directors.

Given Goldman’s willingness to hire senior consultants, there may be many others who would jump at the opportunity to work there. Especially those who work with Credit Suisse, since it has been cutting contractors instead of full-time staff to cut cost. As per one of the Credit Suisse’s contractors, the bank has cut over 3,000 contractors in the past one year.

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