- Goldman Sachs announced three new heads of investment banking this week.
- Kim Posnett, Matt McClure, and Anthony Gutman were named co-heads of investment banking, a new role.
- Meet the future leaders of Goldman’s marquis business unit.
Goldman Sachs announced a leadership reshuffle this week that created a new layer of management for its all-important investment bank.
Goldman tapped three of its most senior dealmakers — who have personally handled transactions for the likes of Twitter, Uber, and United Airlines — to jointly oversee its investment banking unit: Kim Posnett, who has run tech banking; Matt McClure, who’s led industrials coverage; and Anthony Gutman, who has been running investment banking services in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. They will sit under the heads of Goldman’s global banking and markets unit, Dan Dees and Ashok Varadhan, and be responsible for the bank’s M&A advice to corporate clients.
It’s a big role and signals a new generation of leaders atop Goldman’s marquis business. Goldman has been No. 1 in M&A advice for most of the last 20 years, including in 2024 when it nabbed 30% of the more than $3 trillion in M&A volume around the world, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group.
The reshuffle comes as Wall Street generally braces for a thawing in mergers and public issuances as a new presidential administration gets underway. Last week, Goldman reported a more than 100% increase in profits amid an upswing in dealmaking activity.
It also comes as the bank prepares for at least another five years of leadership under CEO David Solomon and John Waldron, Goldman Sachs’ president and COO. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Goldman’s top officials, including Solomon, had been seeking ways to “signal to a younger generation of partners they are still climbing the ranks.”
“This group of leaders represents the very best of our culture of excellence, client service and teamwork,” Solomon said in announcing the news. “They have made outstanding contributions throughout their careers to our client franchise, operations and market-leading positions across our business.”
Here’s a look at the three new co-heads of investment banking — their careers, their accomplishments, and some of the clients they’ve advised.
Kim Posnett
Goldman Sachs
Posnett has emerged as one of Goldman’s brightest stars. Most recently, she served as global head of technology, media, and telecommunications banking, essentially running a unit responsible for advising some of the nation’s top tech companies, including Amazon, Uber, Etsy, and eBay.
She was previously head of the firm’s crucial One Goldman Sachs initiative. She also ran the IB services unit — an internal sales force for the investment bank aimed at boosting business opportunities and developing custom banking solutions for clients. She joined Goldman in 2005 and was named a partner in 2016.
In 2024, Posnett told BI that she doesn’t buy into the concept of a star banker who wins all the business and dominates face-time with clients.
“For the firm to win, it’s mission-critical that clients are comfortable with not just any one person but the entire coverage team,” she said, adding that the bank will send as many as 10 bankers to meet with a prospective client. “Because if they’re just comfortable with one individual, that’s not really scalable, and that creates risk across generations.”
Selected transactions:
- Advised Twitter, now known as X, in its $44 billion sale to Tesla founder Elon Musk
- Advised eBay in the $4 billion sale of StubHub to Viagogo
- Advised Silverlake in its $13 billion announced take-private of Endeavor
- Reddit IPO
Matt McClure
Goldman Sachs
McClure has made his name as a banker to Goldman’s industrial sector clients. During the pandemic years, for example, he crafted a variety of innovative structures to secure funds for companies that needed extra capital to get through a tough period in the travel industry.
As BI reported in 2020, McClure helped Goldman underwrite $120 billion across 85 debt financings for clients in the struggling transportation sector, including Delta, United Airlines, and Norwegian Cruise Line.
McClure helped United deploy what he characterized at the time as a “first-of-its-kind” transaction to raise nearly $7 billion in debt by leveraging the airline’s frequent flyer program. Traveler rewards programs were previously an untapped source of liquidity, McClure told BI at the time.
“The way I would think about it is that you’re extracting value from that asset class that perhaps wasn’t being fully appreciated by the market,” he said.
McClure joined Goldman Sachs in 1999 and was named a partner in 2010. Business Insider included McClure on a list of top investment bankers for 2019 based on total merger volume. McClure ranked fourth, having completed more than $101 billion worth of M&A transactions that year, according to data from MergerLinks.
Selected transactions:
- Represented Amcor in its reported $8.4 billion announced acquisition of Berry Global
- Helped facilitate Boeing’s $24 billion capital raise
- $3.9 billion announced sale of Masonite to Owens Corning
- Canadian Pacific’s $31 billion stock-and-cash acquisition of Kansas City Southern
Anthony Gutman
Gutman has headed up the Europe, Middle East, and Africa investment-banking divisions at Goldman and previously ran investment banking and IB services for Goldman in the United Kingdom.
He joined the firm in 2007 as a managing director and was elevated to the partnership in 2012. Before that, he worked at Citigroup. He was named co-head of UK investment banking alongside another senior partner, Mark Sorrell, in 2011, according to the publication Financial News. Previously at Goldman, he had served as co-COO of UK investment banking alongside Sorrell, and they were both promoted at the same time.
At Citi, Gutman was a managing director and head of hotels and leisure M&A, per FN.
Reed Alexander is a correspondent at Business Insider. He can be reached via email at [email protected], or SMS/the encrypted app Signal at (561) 247-5758.
