At only 29, Darren Dixon was named as Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s youngest Black partner. Before that, he was a summer intern at the New York-based firm in 2007 before he was hired full time in 2008.
He quickly rose through the bank’s trading division and became famous for putting together complex deals in Latin America. Now the rising star is leaving the multinational firm to start his own fund, Bloomberg reports. Dixon is reportedly leaving Goldman, along with its $950k partner salary, plus a bonus, plus various special rewards, to set up his own fund, eFinancialCareers adds.
Ahead of Dixon’s departure, some Black talents have already left the financial institution. The company reported last year that it has only 49 Blacks among its 1,548 executives. It had only about a dozen Black partners at the start of last year out of its 400 top-ranked employees. Five of them have left since then. Dixon is now the sixth to leave.
Bloomberg reports that Dixon, who was most recently head of global capital solutions, is in talks with financiers to start an infrastructure-focused fund that is expected to mimic the style of his group at Goldman.
With the 35-year-old’s exit, Goldman will be left with just one Black partner in its markets business, which is the firm’s biggest division and accounted for more than $22 billion in revenue in the 12 months through March.
“Most of the Black partners who left in the past year had recently been promoted. Their decision to exit soon after attaining Goldman’s highest rank means their tenure was much shorter than the average Goldman partner,” Bloomberg reports.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer David Solomon has pledged to improve diversity in the company, saying the issue is central to the bank’s ability to compete.
