Goldman Sachs names Stephanie Cohen as strategy head

Goldman Sachs Group has named Stephanie Cohen to succeed Stephen Scherr as chief strategy officer as the firm embarks on a three-year growth plan.

The firm’s strategy has come into focus as the fixed-income trading business has slumped and annual revenue fell in 2016 to the lowest in five years. The firm outlined a plan in September to generate $5 billion in additional revenue over the next three years, with more than 40% of that coming from lending. The consumer-banking unit is expected to play a big role.

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The Goldman Sachs & Co. logo is displayed at the company's booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Friday, July 19, 2013. U.S. stocks fell after benchmark equities gauges rose to records yesterday, as worse-than-estimated profit from Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) overshadowed China’s plan to remove the floor on lending rates. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Cohen, who has run mergers-and-acquisitions banking for financial sponsors since 2015, will join the executive office, according to a memo to staff Monday. Scherr, 53, who’s held the strategy role since 2014, will focus his time on building the firm’s fledgling consumer banking unit.

“We look forward to working closely with Stephanie to identify and execute on additional growth opportunities, including how we can serve more of our corporate clients’ needs across the full range of our businesses,” Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein and co-Presidents Harvey Schwartz and David Solomon wrote in the memo.

Cohen joined Goldman Sachs in 1999 as an analyst and received the partner title in 2014. She’ll continue working with clients over the next few months as she transitions to the role, according to the memo.

The Wall Street Journal reported the appointment Monday.

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