Dina Powell McCormick, who runs Goldman Sachs' sovereign business, plans to leave to take a post at a merchant bank run by former partners of the Wall Street firm.
McCormick, who was also on Goldman's management committee, is joining BDT & MSD Partners, people familiar with the matter said. The company, which is backed by technology billionaire Michael Dell, was founded by merging firms led by Byron Trott and Gregg Lemkau.
Trott and Lemkau's companies have invested more than $50 billion since 2010. BDT focuses on providing advisory services to high-net-worth families and their businesses and investing in family owned companies. MSD, which grew out of Dell's multibillion-dollar family office, invests in private firms, while also making credit, real estate and growth equity investments.
McCormick first joined New York-based Goldman in 2007 but left the bank to work for former President Donald Trump as deputy national security adviser. She returned in 2018 and was immediately added to the firm's top decision-making body. In her current role, she also led the bank's sustainability business. She earlier was president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, helping oversee programs aimed at providing capital and training for women and small-business owners.
The Egyptian-born Powell, who immigrated to the US with her family as a child, is known across Washington and New York for the depth of her relationships in US government circles as well as close ties she's built with sovereign-wealth fund managers, who control vast spigots of capital.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that BDT & MSD Partners added former Credit Suisse investment-bank chief Christian Meissner in Europe as it builds out its business. Meissner and Lemkau were named partners in the same class at Goldman in 2002.
Trott started Chicago-based BDT in 2009 after almost three decades at Goldman, where he worked with some of the wealthiest and highest-profile individuals and families in the US, from Warren Buffett to the Pritzkers, Waltons and Kochs.
The Wall Street Journal reported McCormick's departure earlier Tuesday. Representatives for Goldman and the merchant bank didn't return calls for comment.
