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(Bloomberg) -- At Goldman Sachs Group Inc., there was the “war for talent”. Now the firm’s fighting to keep one talent in particular: John Waldron.
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The bank’s president and chief operating officer has long been viewed as the preferred candidate to succeed his boss, CEO David Solomon. That’s also made him the subject of poaching attempts as his time in the number two role has stretched past six years.
This week, the bank’s board delivered him a message: Waldron, 55, remains in prime position to succeed Solomon, who turned 63 Friday, if he’s willing to stick it out.
That came in the form of an $80 million restricted stock package to stay five more years. In another rare measure, Waldron’s award matched what his boss was also granted.
The packages are the second received by the pair of executives in just over three years. The previous awards required the stock to hit certain benchmarks and outperform rivals to unlock the full amount. Goldman cited a “rapidly increasing war for talent” as it doled them out.
It’s relatively rare for just one deputy to get such awards. When Apollo Global Management Inc. and BlackRock Inc. made retention moves with long-term packages in the past 18 months, they picked groups of senior executives. Even when Goldman granted its first round three years ago, it expanded the special awards to a wider group of executives after investors pushed back.
On Friday, the firm said the rewards for the top two executives were meant to “maintain a strong succession plan for the future of the firm.” It also said the retention package and a separate program to give leaders a chunk of carried interest earned on private equity funds were designed with the “unique competitive threats for talent that Goldman Sachs faces” in mind.
Waldron has eschewed overtures from other firms, including Carlyle Group Inc. — moves visible to Goldman’s board. Apollo also had discussions with Waldron about joining the firm, the Wall Street Journal reported in December.
Waldron, a charismatic investment banker, has spent nearly three decades tailing Solomon across two different firms. The duo trace their ties to Bear Stearns in the early 1990s, where Waldron got his start as an investment-banking analyst and Solomon was selling junk bonds. Solomon defected to Goldman first, then lured Waldron, eventually taking him up the ladder. In 2018, Goldman’s board named Solomon CEO, and he appointed Waldron sole president.