Salame, an Ecuadorian who moved to New York from London last year, joined the firm in 1996 and helped manage global credit, mortgages, emerging-markets trading and equity derivatives before taking his current role.

Eisler and Heller join about 50 Goldman Sachs partners who left the firm in the past 12 months, according to company filings, internal memos and news reports. The bank elects its most successful employees to a so-called partnership every other year, granting them access to a special compensation pool, to maintain the culture of the partnership the firm ended when it went public in May 1999.

Other recent departures include James B. Clark from asset management, Kevin S. Gasvoda from fixed-income, Linnea K. Roberts from investment banking, and Edith A. Hunt, who helped manage the personnel division, according to a company filing. All are based in New York and none responded to e-mails seeking comment.

Charles Manby, a British citizen based in London, retired as global chairman of technology, media and telecommunications banking, the firm said in a memo to employees last month. The dealmaker, who advised companies including Deutsche Telekom AG and Vodafone Group Plc, joined Goldman Sachs's corporate finance unit in London in 1990 before becoming a partner in 2000.

In Asia, Hong Kong-based Rumiko Hasegawa, who was most recently head of corporate sales for Asia outside Japan, retired at the end of the year after 19 years at the company, according to a memo in November. Daisuke Toki, who was vice chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Japan, left at year end after 21 years at the company, a September memo showed. All of the memos' contents were confirmed by company spokespeople.

'Greener Pastures'

Eisler and Heller will become senior directors, according to the memos. Senior directors advise the firm on matters related to their areas of expertise and aren't employees.

"Both of these executives have a risk-taking background at Goldman and are relatively young and may have perceived greener pastures elsewhere," Gregory Cresci, an executive recruiter at Odyssey Search Partners in New York, said in a phone interview.

Heller, who didn't respond to phone and e-mail messages seeking comment, has demonstrated an interest in politics, helping to raise money for President Barack Obama's election in 2008, and in sports. Heller became a part-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team last year, according to the National Basketball Association, and was part of a group that tried to buy the New York Mets baseball team, according to the New York Post. Eisler didn't reply to an e-mail seeking comment.

"The vast majority of traders at Goldman who leave go on to start their own hedge funds," William Cohan, author of "Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World" and a Bloomberg View columnist, said on Bloomberg television.