- 10 Goldman Sachs partners shared the books, speeches, and plays that inspired them this year.
- President John Waldron recommended a book about Dwight Eisenhower that taught him about leadership.
- See what 9 other Goldman execs said made them better leaders, industry experts, and humans in 2024.
Goldman Sachs’ top brass are revered as some of the sharpest minds on Wall Street — but staying on top of your game takes work.
As 2024 comes to a close, Business Insider asked 10 senior officials of the powerhouse global investment bank — a leader in M&A dealmaking and advice — to share at least one thing they read, watched, or listened to that made them smarter and better at their jobs over the last year.
One Goldman partner recommended a play that helped her think about the long-term impact of her actions. Another partner touted a lecture by a famous philosopher on the importance of organizational trust that can be streamed from Spotify.
As Carey Halio, Goldman’s global treasurer, put it, learning is an “endless” pursuit for leaders of the bank, which ranked No. 1 in M&A volumes last year, according to deal tracker LSEG.
“The more you can expand your knowledge base, the better you will be at your core function, the more you will be able to connect the dots and the more effective you will be as a leader,” Halio told BI.
Here’s what top Goldman executives like President John Waldron, Vice Chair Rob Kaplan, and M&A cohead Stephan Feldgoise shared as their top recommendations from 2024. The responses all come from Goldman partners, the bank’s highest rank outside the C-suite. They are in the partners’ own words, edited only for length and clarity, and are organized alphabetically by last name.
