Corporate Governance

Inside Look Into Goldman Sachs

By Fei-Lu Qian

For an inside peak to the corporate structure of Goldman Sachs, you should read The New York Times article discussing the inner circle of the company?s partnership structure.  Through regulatory filings and internal partnership documents, The New York Times and Footnoted.com were able to get ?a much fuller picture of both Goldman?s compensation and its elite partnership of 475 people who run the firm.?  For instance, 87% of the current partners are men.  Since Goldman?s IPO in 1999, on average, each partner has sold about $24 million of Goldman shares.

Also, in the middle of the nation?s financial crisis when the company?s stock was getting a beating, Goldman Sachs gave 36 million stock options to its employees in December 2008.  Of course, many of the options were given to the firm?s partners and they have helped increase the partners? stake in Goldman to 11.2% from 8.7%.  As more of the options become vested, the partners will gain more control of the firm.

Full post as published by PomTalk on January 24, 2011 (boomark / email).