Goldman Sachs CEO gives up high-profile DJ gigs
David Solomon ended his DJ side hustle due to the attention it grabbed, Goldman confirms
Bad news for D-Sol fans: The DJ, better known as Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO David Solomon, will no longer be spinning the ones and twos in the public eye.
The Financial Times reported Monday that Solomon decided to stop DJing at high-profile gigs last year because of "unwanted media attention," citing two people familiar. The Wall Street investment bank confirmed Solomon has put his DJ side hustle on ice.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon spins at Schimanski, a nightclub in Brooklyn, New York, on Oct. 14, 2018. (REUTERS/Trevor Hunnicutt / Reuters Photos)
"This is not news," Goldman spokesman Tony Fratto told the outlet. "David hasn’t publicly DJed an event in well over a year, which we have confirmed multiple times in the past."
He added, "Music was not a distraction from David’s work. The media attention became a distraction."
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DJing has been a longtime hobby of Solomon's, and the executive's performances in recent years have attracted headlines as well as scrutiny.
DJ D-Sol, aka Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, appears at Casamigos Presents Sports Illustrated "The Party" at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, on Feb. 1, 2020. (Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Casamigos / Getty Images)
FT previously reported some members of Goldman's board expressed uneasiness over their chairman's decision to get behind the turntables at large-scale events — particularly in 2019, when he manned the booth at the Tomorrowland music festival, which has a notorious drug scene.
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Then in 2020, Solomon reportedly apologized to the board after he DJed at a charity concert in the Hamptons that New York authorities later investigated for alleged social distancing violations amid the pandemic.
Solomon's last major public DJing appearance was in July 2022, at the four-day Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.
David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., appears on Bloomberg Television during the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference in New York on Dec. 6, 2022. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GS | THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC. | 601.71 | -3.86 | -0.64% |
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Solomon, 61, joined Goldman in 1999 as a partner with the leverage finance team, rising through the ranks to become CEO in 2018 and chairman in 2019.
After taking the helm, he sought to diversify the firm beyond its tradition strengths of investment banking and trading, but has since reversed course and reclaimed that focus after losses in other areas — particularly an ill-fated foray into consumer banking, which has lost $3 billion over three years.
In January, Goldman said it had cut Solomon’s salary by $10 million in 2022, after Apple CEO Tim Cook suggested his own pay reduction earlier in the month.
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The bank posted a drop in net profit of 33% to $2.06 billion, or $5.47 per share, on Tuesday.
Over the last year, Goldman shares are off roughly 1.4% and are down almost 10% since Jan. 1.
Reuters contributed to this report.