The offer came in 1999 while he was at Bear Stearns Cos. There, he jockeyed with Goldman’s team before the firms ended up collaborating to raise almost $1 billion of high-yield debt to help casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson build the Venetian resort in Las Vegas. Even back then, Blankfein advocated hiring Solomon, who arrived with the rank of partner -- a relatively rare feat. Over the years, he’s maintained client relationships with U.S. corporate leaders including Walt Disney Co.’s Bob Iger and General Electric Co.’s Jeff Immelt and John Flannery, according to a person with knowledge of the business.
“David was a very young guy at Bear Stearns, but it was very apparent he was a gifted manager even back then,” Alan Schwartz, chairman of Guggenheim Partners who worked with Solomon at Bear Stearns, said in an interview. “When he went to Goldman we were disappointed, but not at all surprised of the number of jobs and promotions he picked up over time.”
Solomon rose through Goldman’s financing operation and eventually ran the firm’s top-ranked investment-banking arm for a decade. During that time, Goldman Sachs decided to build out the debt capital markets business, largely territory dominated by the commercial banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. The unit now ranks among the largest lenders to M&A buyers.
Even as the bank’s bond trading results faltered, it kept growing in debt underwriting. Goldman earned a record $2.94 billion of revenue from that business last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s been helped by deals such as Amazon.com Inc.’s purchase of Whole Foods Market Inc., where the bank provided short-term bridge loans.
Yet, it’s not like he doesn’t know trading. His initial years at Goldman included stints running leveraged finance and a larger credit business. By 2002, he was a member of the fixed-income business’s operating committee, overseeing the Asian special-situations group, corporates, credit derivatives, credit research and leveraged finance.
Solomon is known for his adaptability, honing a wide range of skills professionally and in his personal life. He moonlights as an electronic music disc jockey, skis avidly, collects wine and eats out frequently, picking restaurants with the purposeful zeal of a food critic. The Society of Bacchus America once awarded him the title Mr. Gourmet 2010.
But his absence during last September’s presentation also underscored one of the banker’s weaknesses as a CEO candidate that matters for any company: Big shareholders didn’t know him. He set out to fix that in the months that followed, traveling the globe for more than two dozen one-on-one meetings with large investors. Just last week, he visited Boston to sit with Fidelity Investments and MFS Investment Management Co.
In notes on Monday, some analysts mentioned that they too had met with Solomon. Several welcomed his ascent because, strategy aside, it resolves uncertainty.
“It removes the risk that there could have been co-CEOs upon Blankfein’s retirement,” Brian Kleinhanzl, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, wrote in a note to clients. “That structure can be unwieldy.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.