Ed Emerson has been one of Goldman Sachs’ highest paid executives in recent times. In fact, he made an estimated $100 million over the past three years, beating the pay awarded to the investment bank’s CEO, David Solomon, of $77.5 million.
Now, the 47-year-old Emerson, who leads the investment bank’s commodities trading division, is stepping down from his role in March, according to an internal memo sent on Tuesday, viewed by Fortune.
Emerson, a British citizen born in Argentina and based in New York, joined Goldman as an analyst in 1999, steadily climbing the ranks over the years. The commodities unit, where he worked, has been a key part of the investment bank’s business following its acquisition of J. Aron & Co. in 1981.
“He played a critical role in advancing the firm’s oil business,” wrote Ashok Varadhan, Dan Dees, and Jim Esposito, who lead Goldman’s global banking and markets operations.
Under Emerson’s leadership in recent years, the commodities trading division navigated volatilities from the COVID-19 pandemic to the Ukraine war, during which energy prices wavered dramatically.
The division has a record of past leaders who went on to hold influential roles higher up in the company; former CEO Lloyd Blankfein is one example, Bloomberg reported.
Although Emerson will retire from his role in trading, he will continue to stay at the company as an advisor during the transition, a Goldman spokesperson confirmed to Fortune. He will be succeeded by two of his deputies, Qin Xiao and Nitin Jindal, who will co-lead the business.
Emerson’s time at Goldman
CEO Solomon’s leadership style and business decisions have come under scrutiny within and outside the company. His efforts foraying into commercial banking were unsuccessful, and he undertook several other restructuring plans across Goldman’s business. Adding to internal friction, news leaked that the bank planned to cut bonuses paid to bankers for 2022 by at least 40%, the Financial Times reported last December.
Emerson was among Solomon’s critics given his misstep with trying to pivot to consumer banking, according to Bloomberg.
The global commodities chief saw revenues for his desk surge to over $3 billion last year, thanks to high oil and gas prices. The previous two years also saw similar highs in his division’s revenues, which helped Emerson pocket $100 million since 2020.
Outside work, he’s earned a reputation for his practical jokes: On a trip to Costa Rica, he threw fake snakes around the house to scare the group he was traveling with, according to Bloomberg.
