David Solomon Bio
David Michael Solomon, born on January 17, 1962, is an American investment banker and corporate executive who has served as chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs since October 2018 and as chairman of the firm since January 2019. Over a career that began on Wall Street in the 1980s, he has worked at Irving Trust, Drexel Burnham, and Bear Stearns before joining Goldman Sachs in 1999. Beyond finance, Solomon is known for performing electronic dance music under the name DJ D-Sol and for founding the charitable music label Payback Records.
He is also a trustee and chairman of the board of Hamilton College, his undergraduate alma mater, where he studied political science and government. Solomon lives in New York City and has two daughters from his previous marriage.
Early Life and Background
David Michael Solomon was born circa January 17, 1962, in Hartsdale, New York. His father, Alan Solomon, was an executive vice president of a small publishing company, and his mother, Sandra, worked as an audiology supervisor. He grew up in Scarsdale, New York, where he attended Edgemont Junior-Senior High School. As a teenager, Solomon worked at a local Baskin-Robbins and later spent time as a camp counselor in New Hampshire.
Solomon went on to attend Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. While at Hamilton, he played on the rugby team and served as chairman of the college’s Alpha Delta Phi chapter. He has remained closely tied to his alma mater through decades of alumni involvement.
Path to Chief Executive Officer
After graduating from Hamilton College, Solomon applied to Goldman Sachs for a two-year analyst position but was rejected. He instead joined Irving Trust, which he later described as a graduate school at a bank. In 1986, he moved to Drexel Burnham, first as a commercial paper salesman and later transitioning to junk bonds, an experience that shaped his approach to high-yield debt.
From Drexel Burnham, Solomon moved to Bear Stearns, where he led the junk bonds division and advised clients on higher-risk bond issuances. After a decade of building his Wall Street reputation, he joined Goldman Sachs in 1999 at the age of 37, a move that surprised contemporaries who had considered him on the leadership track at Bear Stearns.
David Solomon Career
Early Career (1986–2006)
Solomon’s early career took him through three major Wall Street institutions. At Irving Trust he learned the fundamentals of banking, and at Drexel Burnham he gained exposure to high-yield debt markets. He then joined Bear Stearns, where he led the junk bonds division and worked on complex transactions, including a complicated bond deal that helped a struggling movie theater company in Dallas, Texas, raise capital.
Those years built the client relationships and deal-making skills that would later define his rise at Goldman Sachs. He developed a specialty in leveraged finance and built a reputation for combining technical skill with a strong sense of client service.
Goldman Sachs Leadership Years (2006–2016)
In July 2006, Solomon was promoted to head Goldman Sachs’s investment banking division, a role he held for the next decade. One of his early signature moments came in July 2007, when he secured the initial public offering of Lululemon Athletica. At the meeting, Solomon famously wore a maroon blazer with sweatpants, a reference to the company’s clothing, deliberately deviating from the suit-only dress code.
During his ten-year tenure, he introduced year-end compensation roundtables that he used to pressure-test executives and weed out under-performers. By the time he stepped aside, he was credited with professionalizing the investment banking division and roughly doubling profit margins from 11 percent to 22 percent, while sales rose by about 70 percent.
President and CEO Era (2017–Present)
Following Gary Cohn’s resignation in late 2016, Solomon was named president and co-chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs in December 2016. In March 2018, his co-chief operating officer, Harvey Schwartz, announced his resignation, leaving Solomon as the clear second-in-command. On October 1, 2018, he formally succeeded Lloyd Blankfein as chief executive officer, and in January 2019 he was named chairman.
As CEO, Solomon has pushed to modernize Goldman’s culture, including raising pay for programmers, loosening dress codes, modernizing computer systems, instituting video interviews, and creating a real-time performance review system for new hires. He has also advocated reducing normal workweeks from around 90 hours to 70 to 75 hours when the firm is not actively closing deals. In 2021, the firm reduced his 2020 compensation by about 39.6 percent in connection with Goldman’s role in the 1MDB scandal.
Notable Events and Milestones
One of Solomon’s signature career milestones was the Lululemon IPO in 2007, which set the tone for his unconventional but effective leadership style at Goldman Sachs. His elevation to sole president and COO in March 2018 marked him as the clear successor to Lloyd Blankfein, and his formal transition to CEO on October 1, 2018, capped a more than three-decade climb through Wall Street.
David Solomon Family
Family Background and Education
Solomon was raised in a professional family in Scarsdale, New York. His father, Alan Solomon, served as an executive vice president of a small publishing company, while his mother, Sandra, worked as an audiology supervisor. He attended Edgemont Junior-Senior High School before earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hamilton College, where he played rugby and chaired the Alpha Delta Phi chapter.
Personal Life
Solomon married Mary Elizabeth Solomon, née Coffey, in 1989, when both were 27 years old, in Bernardsville, New Jersey. The couple had two daughters before divorcing in early 2018. He has lived at The San Remo on the Upper West Side of Manhattan since 2002, and he also previously owned a large estate in Aspen, Colorado. Solomon serves on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation and has been a member of Hamilton College’s board of trustees since 2005, becoming chairman of the board on July 1, 2021.
David Solomon Music and Payback Records
Outside finance, Solomon is a recreational electronic dance music producer and disc jockey who performs as DJ D-Sol. He has appeared at nightclubs and music festivals in New York, Miami, and the Bahamas, and has shared stages with artists including Paul Oakenfold and Galantis. He made a cameo appearance as himself on the Showtime series Billions in 2020 and performed at Lollapalooza in July 2022, with all proceeds from his music appearances donated to charity.
In December 2018, Solomon founded Payback Records in partnership with Big Beat and Atlantic Records, directing all proceeds to charitable causes related to addiction, hunger relief, and COVID-19 relief. He released a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop in June 2018, and his single Someone Like You peaked at number four on the Billboard Dance Club Chart in November 2020.
David Solomon Upcoming Projects (2025)
As of 2025, Solomon continues to serve as chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs while pursuing his parallel interests in music and philanthropy. He is expected to continue performing select DJ sets and releasing music through Payback Records, with proceeds directed to charity, while also overseeing strategic initiatives at Goldman Sachs.