Goldman Sachs is set to scale back some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies amid a White House-backed crackdown on so-called “woke” capitalism, The Post has learned.
CEO David Solomon will change course amid the threat of possible lawsuits after President Donald Trump ordered US Attorney General Pam Bondi to stamp out so-called DEI practices in the private sector, sources familiar with the matter said.
The Wall Street giant’s move, slated to be formally confirmed this week, comes as a string of its Wall Street rivals scrubbed DEI language from their annual reports to shareholders, known as 10-Ks.
The finer details are still being thrashed out by the bank’s top brass, the sources said, but it is expected the firm will dramatically soften any DEI terms that featured in last year’s report.
The issue was discussed by Solomon and the bank’s partners at their annual meeting in Miami earlier this month, multiple sources told The Post.
It follows the bank’s decision to scrap a policy that banned doing IPOs for companies with all-white, all-male boards.
Solomon, who raked in $39 million last year, was one of the banking industry’s most vocal champions of the policies aimed at encouraging more representation from minority groups.
The 63-year-old wrote to Goldmanites on the topic in March 2019, one year before the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement forced the issue to the top of the agenda of boardrooms across corporate America.
“Diversity and inclusion is a top priority at Goldman Sachs. We know that the strength of our culture, the execution of our strategy, and our relevance to our clients depend on a truly diverse workforce and inclusive work environment,” Solomon wrote in the memo six years ago.
The company’s website currently pledges that Goldman is “committed to making progress toward racial equity, advancing gender equality, and increasing representation at every level of our firm.”
The bank’s 2023 annual report, posted in February of last year, added: “We believe that diversity at all levels of our organization, from entry-level analysts to senior management … is essential to our sustainability.”
The Post has also reviewed a series of job openings with the firm at its lower Manhattan headquarters that ask candidates to state their preferred pronouns and their gender identity.
Insiders at the bank said the answers are only supplied voluntarily.
“A lot of people don’t bother with all this stuff anyway,” said one banker, who asked for their name to be withheld because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
“Our focus has been and will continue to be on attracting the best talent, which has long been the basis for our commercial success,” a Goldman Sachs spokesperson said.
The spokesperson declined to comment on any upcoming securities filings.
The bank’s 2023 ‘People Strategy’ Report stated Goldman wanted to achieve gender parity worldwide amongst its staff while setting targets in the US to ensure the payroll is 11% Black American and 14% Hispanic.
The sea change on Wall Street comes after pressure from the White House as well as some activist investors who have filed motions urging shareholders to demand that the measures be rolled back.
Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley have also scaled back their DEI commitments, while other major American corporate titans such as Ford and Disney have followed the same path.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was secretly recorded earlier this month lashing out at policies such as “bias training.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
