The new people to know in Goldman Sachs' engineering division

It's been a week of change on the back of a year of change for Goldman Sachs' technology ('engineering') division. Earlier this week, it emerged that Marty Chavez, who was Goldman's chief information officer from 2014 to 2017 after a long history in the strats team is off to spend more time with his children (oh, and to become a VC in Silicon Valley). Today, the Wall Street Journal reported that Elisha Wiesel, who replaced Chavez as Goldman's technology head, is also leaving. This follows the exit of Konstantin Shakhnovich, co-head of engineering for the securities division in January and last year's exit of Umesh Subramanian, another former co-head of technology, for Citadel.

So, who are the people to know in Goldman's engineering team now? For anyone struggling to keep up, these are the big names.

Raj Mahajan

Raj Mahajan is the co-head of engineering for Goldman's securities division.  Hired in 2015 to improve Goldman's electronic trading business, he's said to be "obsessed with speed" and despite claims of disgruntlement in the equities team in May this year, he seems to be succeeding. -  Goldman's equities trading revenues were up 6% year-on-year in the second quarter. Mahajan was already a GS partner, but Bloomberg says he was recently promoted to, 'a new role that will make him responsible for all quant client needs.'

Ezra Nahum

Ezra Nahum is another partner and co-head of securities division engineering. French by birth, Ezra has a background as a strat in Goldman's investment banking division and a PhD from the University of Berkeley California. He began his career at BNP Paribas before moving to Bear Stearns and then Goldman Sachs.

In April, Nahum told the Financial Times his role had changed under David Solomon, and that the new CEO demands a “front to back” strategy which requires the firm to assess the entire life cycle of a trade, rather than just bringing in business.

Adam Korn

Adam Korn is the third co-head of engineering for Goldman's securities division. He is also the man currently said to be hiring 100 engineers for technology roles on Goldman's trading floor. Korn is particularly focused on systematic market making and is responsible for Marquee, the product which allows Goldman clients to interface directly with the bank's risk and pricing system (and potentially reduces the need for human salestraders in the process). Korn joined Goldman in 2002.

Ericka Leslie

Ericka Leslie is Goldman's head of global operations for the securities division. She's been with the firm for 23 years and is responsible for all the techology and infrastructure required to process and settle trades.

Sinead Strain

Sinead Strain is head of fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) technology for Goldman, a role she's held since 2014. A graduate of Dublin university, she joined the firm in 2005 after 10 years with JPMorgan. 

John Madsen 

John Madsen is Goldman's current CTO. He was appointed to the role in 2017 after the previous head, Don Duet, left. Madsen was initially co-CTO with Umesh Subramanian, but Subramanian left for Citadel. 

Jeff Wecker 

Jeff Wecker is Goldman's chief data officer. He joined in October 2017 from hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, where he was 'head of front office transformation.'

George Lee

Lee is chief information officer for Goldman's investment banking division. A Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) Group banker by trade, he isn't exactly a technologist himself, but clearly knows a lot about it. He's also a member of Goldman's Firmwide Technology Risk Committee. 

Joanne Hannaford

Jo Hannaford was promoted as head of EMEA technology at Goldman in March 2017. She's spent 22 years at the firm after joining from RBS in 1997. She was promoted to managing director in 2001, partner in 2013, and became head of EMEA technology in February 2017. Hannaford says she continues to code every day.

Andy Ozment

Andy Ozment is Goldman's chief information security officer. He joined in 2017 from the U.S. department of Homeland Security, where he was assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications.

Hari Moorthy

Hari Moorthy is head of technology for Goldman's fast growing commercial banking business and cash management platform. He joined from JPMorgan in May 2018.

Michael Blum

Mike Blum is Goldman's chief technology officer for electronic trading. He joined from KCG Holdings in October 2017 and is reportedly overseeing a three year plan to spent $100m shaving milliseconds off trades. 

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