Read the full memo Goldman Sachs' top brass just sent to staff announcing 2 heads of the bank's private-investing arm are out as it's gearing up to raise billions

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Read the full memo Goldman Sachs' top brass just sent to staff announcing 2 heads of the bank's private-investing arm are out as it's gearing up to raise billions
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon
  • Andrew Wolff and Sumit Rajpal, coheads of Goldman's merchant banking division alongside Julian Salisbury, will retire from the firm at the end of February.
  • Rajpal and Wolff were slated to be lead investors for Goldman's eighth private-equity fund, which, according to a Reuters report on Friday, will kick off fundraising next week.
  • Execs including CEO David Solomon have touted the strategy in recent months, saying Goldman is ramping up a fundraising machine to pool billions of dollars in client money.
  • Here's the full internal memo sent on Friday from Solomon, Goldman President John Waldron, and CFO Stephen Scherr.
  • Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Andrew Wolff and Sumit Rajpal, coheads of Goldman's merchant banking division alongside Julian Salisbury, are leaving the firm at the end of February.

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Rajpal and Wolff were slated to be lead investors for Goldman's eighth private-equity fund, which, according to a Reuters report on Friday, will kick off fundraising next week. The bank is hoping to raise $8 billion and complete a first close by the end of March, at which point it can begin making investments, the wire service reported.

Execs including CEO David Solomon have touted the strategy in recent months. The idea is that as Goldman raises more outside money, it will also shift the types of investments it's making with its own money. And in doing so it will free up a scarce resource that has been weighing down its profitability metrics.

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Here's the full internal memo sent on Friday from Solomon, Goldman President John Waldron, and CFO Stephen Scherr:

After more than 22 and 20 years of distinguished service at Goldman Sachs, respectively, Andrew Wolff and Sumit Rajpal, who serve as global co-heads of the Merchant Banking Division (MBD) alongside Julian Salisbury, will retire from the firm at the end of February. Julian will become sole head of MBD at that time and drive the continued growth of our leading investing platform. Rich Friedman will continue in his role as chairman of the division, where he helps lead the development of our broader alternatives business. Rich continues to serve as chairman of various investment committees, leading the investment processes across all investment strategies.

In their roles, Andrew and Sumit have leveraged their deep experience as seasoned investors to help shape our private equity and alternatives investing strategies, and most recently played an important role in advancing our efforts to unify several of our businesses into one world-class, direct alternative investing platform. Throughout their long tenures at the firm, they have led some of the firm's most successful investments in a range of portfolio companies, and each served on the boards of many of Goldman Sachs' public and private portfolio companies around the world. In addition, Andrew and Sumit have dedicated significant time and energy toward recruiting and developing many of our investment professionals in MBD.

Andrew joined Goldman Sachs in 1998 in the Principal Investment Area, and has since invested across global markets, working in our Hong Kong, London and New York offices. As a trusted leader and mentor to many, he played an important role in building and expanding Merchant Banking's international businesses. Prior to assuming his current roles as global co-head of MBD, head of MBD International and global co-head of the Corporate Private Equity business, Andrew served as co-head of MBD in Asia Pacific. He was appointed as a member of the European Management Committee in 2012, contributing to a number of regional initiatives in EMEA.

Andrew serves as co-chair of the MBD Growth Investment Committee, and is a member of the Firmwide Investment Policy Committee, Growth Market Council and MBD Corporate and Infrastructure Investment Committees. He was named managing director in 2005 and partner in 2006.

Sumit joined Goldman Sachs in 2000 as an associate in the Financial Institutions Group in Investment Banking. He then joined the Financing Group before transferring to the Principal Investment Area in MBD in 2005, and spearheaded our Global Financial Services investing business since 2010, in addition to serving as global co-head of our Corporate Private Equity business. Sumit has contributed to several of the firm's strategic initiatives, including leading the team for the initial buildout of our digital consumer platform, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, within Merchant Banking.

Sumit is a member of the Firmwide Asset Liability Committee and MBD Corporate and Infrastructure Investment Committees, and serves as co-chair of the MBD Growth Investment Committee. He was named managing director in 2007 and partner in 2010.

Please join us in thanking Andrew and Sumit for their outstanding commitment and contributions to the firm, our clients and our people, and in wishing them and their families the very best in the years ahead. We look forward to Rich and Julian's continued leadership of the Merchant Banking Division.

David M. Solomon
John E. Waldron
Stephen M. Scherr

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