In late March, Gregg Lemkau, the former co-director of investment banking and an executive who was widely considered to be a potential Goldman CEO, sent a post on Twitter about getting up at dawn to work remotely from his home in Hawaii, which is six hours behind New York.
He soon received a call from Mr. Solomon, who was not satisfied with the perception of the message, say three people with knowledge of the call. The two executives discussed, these people said, whether Lemkau should return to New York. They resolved their differences and Mr. Lemkau stood for two months before flying back. In mid-November, Lemkau, then 51, announced plans to retire from Goldman to become chief executive of the family investment office of Michael Dell, the billionaire founder of the computer company.
“The reaction was overwhelming,” Lemkau said in a podcast weeks later. The memories that colleagues shared, he said, underscore how his treatment of other people defined him. “Not the big business I did, nor the formal thing I did, but the little things you did that made a difference in your lives,” he reflected, “kind of makes you feel like, ‘Damn it, I’m glad it was worth it. worth doing all that. ‘”
Mr. Lemkau told people in particular that his departure had nothing to do with his feud with Mr. Solomon.
The exodus has gained momentum this year. Last month, Michael Daffey, who led the global markets division, retired.
So this week, Eric S. Lane, co-director of the company’s asset management business and also considered a candidate for the job of CEO of Goldman, took a senior position in a major hedge fund. Karen Patton Seymour, general counsel for the company since 2019, has also left and plans to return to her former law firm, according to internal emails. Everyone was a member of the management committee and everyone, except Mrs. Seymour, had long positions in the company. At the same time, Omer Ismail, head of Goldman’s Marcus consumer business, left to run a new financial technology venture that was sown by Walmart, taking a deputy who oversaw Apple’s credit card partnership with him.