List of Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division Leaders

• Goldman Sachs' merchant banking division has been ground zero for CEO David Solomon's push to build an alternatives-investing powerhouse by attracting third-party funds. 
• The firm is planning to raise at least $100 billion over the next five years from outside investors, including many public pension funds that haven't previously given their funds to Goldman. 
• The strategy has meant a shift away from investing from its own balance sheet and required combining of several disparate teams from across the firm.
• While the merging of teams led to some turnover, the management team has stabilized in recent months. 
• The following list includes the top 20 Goldman executives tapped to run the combined merchant banking division. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

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Goldman Sachs' merchant banking division has been through a lot of change recently.

The business unit has been ground zero for CEO David Solomon's plan to pivot the company away from making private-equity style investments from its balance sheet in favor of raising outside money in a third-party fund structure.

The strategy shift required bringing a handful of disparate investing teams scattered around the bank under the MBD umbrella. One of those was Goldman's elite special situations group, which managed about $30 billion in investments from the securities division.

The merging of the teams required personnel changes, which sparked upheaval and some tense moments as execs jockeyed for power. The turmoil came to a head earlier this year when two of the MBD leaders chosen to lead the combined group, Sumit Rajpal and Andrew Wolff, left the bank after losing a power struggle. 

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Read more: 2 coheads of Goldman Sachs' private-investing business are retiring, in a blow to David Solomon's fundraising plans

Their departure left special situations chief Julian Salisbury in control of the division, with longtime MBD leader Rich Friedman holding down the chairman's title.

Once Wolff and Rajpal left, it cleared the way for the two men to settle on a management team, which now features senior leaders from across MBD and the special situations group, as well as other investing teams. The team is now charged with spearheading Goldman's efforts to raise at least $100 billion over the next five years for various alternative-investing strategies. 

This year, the bank accelerated the raising of a fund dedicated to distressed situations as the coronavirus pandemic boosts expectations of a broad-scale reordering of industry, leading to new winners, and losers who need the type of financing that distressed funds like Goldman's are only too happy to provide. 

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Last month, the company closed on $6 billion of commitments for the fund, known as West Street Strategic Solutions, and now expects to raise more than $10 billion over the coming months, CEO David Solomon said on the company's earnings call. That's an upsizing from an original aim to cap the fund at $10 billion. 

To do so, the company is now pitching many pension funds who have not previously committed their billions to Goldman's private-investing enterprise. The bank secured $350 million from the state of Connecticut's pension system last month for a private-credit strategy that will be spread between several different funds over time. 

Here's a list of the 20 executives leading Goldman's merchant banking division. All of them are partners, with a handful all making the grade in 2008. 

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