When President Donald Trump was elected president for the second time, many in the financial industry cheered, excited by the prospect of tax cuts and a friendlier regulatory environment. So the last few months have taken many in the industry by surprise, as the Trump administration has pursued policies like far-reaching tariffs and trade wars that have markets falling and a recession looking increasingly likely.
David Solomon, CEO of investment bank Goldman Sachs, says the business community is now dealing with a ton of uncertainty. Leaders and investors have been asking for more clarity.
“The U.S. economy is in relatively good shape. It’s a huge, diverse, powerful economic engine that is much harder to set off track today than it might have been 30, 40, 50 years ago,” Solomon said Tuesday. “But there’s enormous policy uncertainty.”
In a wide-ranging conversation with Brittany Boals Moeller, Goldman’s region head for San Francisco private wealth management, Solomon touched on leadership, tariffs, and investor uncertainty.
The discussion was part of the Rising Leaders Forum, an invitation-only gathering for 20- and 30-something investors held by Goldman Sachs and New York City philanthropic organization Robin Hood. Other speakers throughout the day’s events included Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Barry Sternlicht, co-founder and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, and basketball phenom Caitlin Clark.
Solomon reflected on his decades-long relationship with Robin Hood, telling attendees, which included around 150 entrepreneurs, startup founders, and wealth inheritors, that it’s imperative for them to start thinking about their legacies and how to build a better world. To that end, panels and informational sessions held throughout the day educated the professionals on maximizing their philanthropic impact.
This is the second year that Goldman has hosted the forum with Robin Hood. The event provides clients with information they need to think about their philanthropic efforts, but also paves a way for the next generation of ultra high-net worth investors and business leaders to make connections, says Goldman’s Boals Moeller.
Robin Hood’s goal is to get younger investors and philanthropists thinking about ways to get involved with and better their city, which the Rising Leaders Forum allows for, says CEO Richard Buery, Jr.
“It’s about getting people to focus, getting people to think about what it means for them and their futures if … this is not a place where everybody truly has the chance to succeed,” he says. “I don’t think that’s a hard pitch.”