Goldman Sachs MD leaves for… Tech investor relations
Equity Capital Markets (ECM) teams had a torrid time in 2022, but things have been looking up recently as IPOs rebound amidst falling inflation and static interest rates. This isn't preventing senior ECM bankers from leaving Goldman Sachs for tech companies. Or at least for tech investor relations.
Olympia McNerney spent 21 years with Goldman in New York, joining the bank’s equity research team before joining the industrials, natural resources, and real estate ECM team in 2004, where she named a MD in just nine years (that’s pretty quick). As an MD, she headed up Canadian ECM for Goldman, was head of global SPACs, and was head of private market alternatives until her departure last week.
And where did this storied capital markets banker go? To IBM, to be its new global head of investor relations. Luckily, IBM is based in Armonk, just an hour’s drive from Manhattan, but the move is still somewhat surprising.
Then again, it really isn’t – a lot of damn good bankers go into investor relations. For instance, Credit Suisse’s ex-head of energy research, Amy Wong, joined BP to head its investor relations team just last month. Bank of America’s former head of equity sales, Richard Manning, joined IWG/Regus a few months before that. That might have something to do with the much more tolerable work-life balance, our salary and bonus survey suggests.
There’s no indication that McNerney was part of Goldman's MD culling, but she's clearly one less MD to pay for at onus time. Even so, bankers heading to investor relations might need to be warned - it’s a very different field compared to the sell-side. That being said, a big part of ECM is selling... Certainly a bigger part than equity research is, anyway.
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