Anne Marie Darling, one of several high-profile partners who exited Goldman Sachs last year, was named, along with Craig Bright, group co-COO for Barclays. Darling and Bright are replacing Alistair Currie, who is leaving the UK bank to pursue a board portfolio career.
Darling and Bright will also serve as co-CEOs of Barclays execution services, the bank’s back-office services company, according to a July 1 statement. Darling joined Barclays in April following a 25-year career at Goldman where she was a partner for the last 12 years. Bright, a former Citi executive who also worked at Westpac, has served as Barclays group chief information officer since 2020.
“Craig and Anne Marie each have a vast and rich professional experience and complement each other well. We will benefit from their collaborative leadership,” said C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays CEO, in a statement.
Barclays is one of the world’s largest banks, reporting 1.5 trillion pounds (about $2 trillion) in total assets as of March 31. Currie spent nearly eight years at Barclays, including as head of corporate banking. He is now planning a board portfolio career, which typically involves holding board positions at different companies.
Venkatakrishnan thanked Currie for serving as group COO. “Alistair leaves the COO function with a strong focus and direction in executing our strategy and wider transformation objectives,” Venkatakrishnan said in a statement.
Darling retired from Goldman in 2024 and moved into an advisory director role. Her next act was unclear although the executive had held discussions with clients in the alternative asset management space, including hedge funds and private equity firms, as well as technology companies, Fortune reported.
Darling was one of several powerful Goldman executives that left the storied investment bank in 2024. This included Philip Berlinski, who exited after spending 26 years there, most recently a global treasurer and CEO of Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Berlinski landed at hedge fund Millennium, where he is co-COO. Jim Esposito worked at Goldman for 29 years and was most recently cohead of banking and markets. He departed in 2024 and is currently president of Citadel Securities, a market-making firm. There’s also Stephanie Cohen, once one of the most powerful women at Goldman, who also exited in 2024. Cohen is currently chief strategy officer at IT company Cloudflare. This year has seen some notable departures from Goldman. Ryan Nolan, a Goldman partner and global co-head of software investment banking, left in January to join BDT & MSD Partners. Todd Eagle, a top real estate banker at Goldman, is exiting to join smaller Wall Street rival Jefferies, the New York Post reported June 12. Eagle is expected to become US head of real estate banking, the report said. He is joining Jefferies at the end of August, a person familiar with the situation said.
