One of Goldman's most senior London strats just left the firm

Rodd Ramsay, one of the most senior strats in Goldman Sachs, has just left the investment bank after a stint of almost 15 years, latterly as an executive director.

He had been with Goldman Sachs for his entire investment banking career, according to his LinkedIn profile. He joined the firm in 2003 after completing his Master's degree in Mathematics from Imperial College London.

During his tenure with Goldman Ramsay served as the head of corporate treasury strategists and equity derivative structuring strategists for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He was also the global head of performance and analytics strategists.

The strats team has become increasingly important for Goldman as it switches to a data-focused strategy. In 2016, it had over 9000 people across technology and strats, and yet it has continued hiring for more. For its security business, strats now make-up 27% of the workforce, up from 18% five years ago, according to Thalia Chryssikou, co-head of global sales strats and structuring across FICC and equities, quoted in a GS newsletter. Last year, 27% of experienced hires in the bank’s FICC division were strats.

GS is now focusing on hiring a new generation of strats who specialize in data management and analytics, including machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), program management and digital product design, in addition to quantitative sciences, rather than going for strats with expertise in modelling risk and pricing analytics.

Based out of London, Ramsay appears to have worked in non-front office strats groups such as corporate treasury and wasn't, therefore, working on cutting-edge artificial intelligence products, but he has a long and broad experience of quantitative analytics.

The timing of his departure suggests he intended to receive his bonus before leaving GS. As hedge funds and tech funds compete for the same experienced talent pool, it is becoming harder for banks to keep hold of their quantitative talent.

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