Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is scrapping a key DEI policy that banned the bank from doing IPOs for companies with white, all-male boards.
It marks a major U-turn for Goldman amid a White House-led crackdown on what the Trump administration believes to be discriminatory hiring policies in the private sector.
Only last week a company insider told The Post that there were no plans to change the investment bank’s approach to so-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.
Goldman Sachs is canceling its IPO diversity policy. Above, Goldman CEO David Solomon. REUTERSBut pressure from the new commander-in-chief has prompted a rethink.
“As a result of legal developments related to board diversity requirements, we ended our formal board diversity policy,” said Tony Fratto, a spokesperson for Goldman Sachs.
“We continue to believe that successful boards benefit from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and we will encourage them to take this approach.”
However sources at crosstown rival JPMorgan told The Post on Monday that CEO Jamie Dimon has no plans to take an ax to their own corporate diversity policies, with one insider calling them “good for business.”
Solomon, who succeeded Lloyd Blankfein in 2018 at the bank’s 200 West Street headquarters, was once a vocal champion of DEI initiatives.
President Trump has targeted DEI policies. AFP via Getty ImagesThe board diversity policy had been in place since 2020 as concern about equal opportunities swept through the boardrooms of corporate America after the killing of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives matter protests.
Goldman said at the time that they would only take a firm public in the US or Western Europe if at least one of its board directors counted as diverse from a demographic historically under-represented in corporate America.
In 2021 it raised this to two diverse board members, one of whom had to be a woman.
Goldman Sachs’ policy was instituted in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. REUTERSThe moves by the new Trump administration have now pushed some of America’s biggest corporate titans to roll back their DEI schemes.
His Jan. 21 executive order instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to identify private sector firms with “egregious and discriminatory” DEI programs.
Walmart, Ford and McDonald’s have all pulled the plug on such schemes in recent weeks amid pressure from conservative activists.
