Goldman Sachs' Marcus business has seen an exodus of senior staff

It turns out that Michael Cerda is not the only senior person to have left Goldman Sachs' Marcus business. Marcus insiders point to a rush of other senior figures who have disappeared in the past few months.

At least 10 key Marcus staff have Goldman's digital retail bank since late 2018. In combination they suggest a period of upheaval at the bank, which has gathered three million customers, $45bn in deposits and $5bn in loans since it was launched in 2016.

The exits include Toby Alfred, Marcus' former head of customer acquisition, who left in September 2018 and is now working as an eCommerce advisor in New York City. They include: Sanjay Gosalia, who joined from Google and was Goldman's head of prospect engagement and lending conversion; Darin Cline who was Marcus's director of consumer operations: Ajit Marathe who was in charge of finance planning analytics (including Apple Card) as well as loans, deposits and a finance planning app; Colin Kennedy, who was chief operating officer of Clarity Money (see below); and Scott Roberts, a managing director who was based in Salt Lake City.

There have also been exits at a more junior level, including Jason Froimowitz, a former Marcus product manager and Marissa Paragano, a product manager who created Marcus's product 'Bible.'

Some of the staff who left already have new roles elsewhere. Froimowitz joined SiriusXM, a Manhattan broadcasting company. Kennedy joined Stripe, a payments platform. Gosalia is thought to be taking up a new role soon. Several of the others appear to be on gardening leave or out of the market.

The reason for the exodus is unclear. Goldman Sachs said: “We value the supportive, dynamic workplace that has allowed Marcus to accomplish so much in a short period of time.  We wish all those no longer part of the team all the best.”

Insiders suggest the business has been cutting costs following last April's acquisition of personal finance business Clarity Money, known internally as 'Project Diamond.' As a result of this acquisition, Clarity's founder Adam Dell became a Goldman Sachs partner. Dell may simply be cutting costs in the business he now effectively runs.

However, insiders also suggest a sense of disgruntlement in one of Goldman's fastest-growing divisions. There are unconfirmed complaints that Marcus staff work long hours for low pay (compared to elsewhere at the firm), and that resources have been diverted to meet an aggressive timeline relating to the Apple card (known as 'Project Cookie') with the result that other parts of the business have suffered. 

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