The Most Powerful Women to Watch, No. 12, Ericka Leslie, Goldman Sachs

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In an era where Wall Street is being reshaped by technology and regulation, Ericka Leslie, COO of Goldman Sachs' global banking and markets (GBM) division, has made a career out of mastering fast-paced change.

Her mandate spans the firm's entire investment banking and trading apparatus, including FICC, equities and the capital solutions group. And it's been a busy and profitable few years. GBM accounted for $34.94 billion in net revenues in 2024 – 16% higher than 2023, Goldman said.

One milestone Leslie points to as a recent operational success was the completion of the industry-wide transition to T+1 settlement in 2024, a move that shortened the trade settlement cycle by a day.

It was a complex operation for banks across the spectrum, and involved an industry-wide and multi-year regulatory change that sped up the trade settlement period. The proposal meant firms had to adjust operational workflows, edit their technology or adopt new platforms to meet regulatory requirements. Leslie said this move was done on top of hers and her teams' 'business as usual' workload.

"Thousands and thousands of people worked over that across the markets," Leslie said.

Now that's complete, she is looking to the future, and believes AI will be the next major disruptor. "In particular the pace of change will happen in the use of agents," she predicted.

Goldman is currently piloting an AI capability which allows it coding productivity.

"Productivity gains in the agent-based workflow around coding are only going to get multiplied throughout the industry," she added. "Things that ultimately held us back structurally will start to change rapidly over the next two years or so. The question is how quickly we're able to move and how quickly we're able to harness all of that."

Leslie hasn't always been focused on operations. An accountant by background, she joined Goldman in 1996, where she has spent the majority of her career in either finance, operations or engineering-adjacent roles. Before assuming her current position she spent more than two years in the executive office as chief administrative officer.

At the time, she was the executive who oversaw Goldman's hard line return to work policy following COVID— a set of moves which sparked industry-wide debate.

"What we quickly discovered was that there was something missing in a completely remote environment. It's a very apprentice-style culture," said Leslie, noting that one of the hardest things about implementing the return to office was making sure employees felt valued.

As one of the most senior women in the revenue division at the firm, and the co-head of the influential partnership committee, it's no surprise that each day she demands of herself the high standards that typify Goldman's reputation.

"The one defining feature you have to have for any of these jobs, is you have to be hard to satisfy," said Leslie "I'm never quite satisfied – there's always more work to do and always more that you can be better at and build from."

When she's not steering an increasingly complex financial machine, Leslie can be found practicing yoga or completing another type of puzzle: in the occasional spare minute she has, she plays LinkedIn games, including Tango.