One after the other as the morning wore on, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s most senior leaders—all men—took turns on stage describing their plan to restore its dimmed star.

Much of it rests on a woman who's being groomed to join them.

The strategy Goldman laid out at its investor day depends heavily on the normally staid office of its treasurer, Beth Hammack, a longtime trader who's quietly charting her way up the ranks. Her challenge: rework how the bank funds everything from consumer loans to billion-dollar derivatives deals. Senior leaders see the mandate as proof she's bound for higher office at the 151-year-old firm.

As Goldman struggles to make good on pledges to recruit more women into its most senior offices, Hammack is among a small number who make the cut in every behind-the-scenes conversation. Insiders see her as a likely candidate to someday serve as CFO, lead the trading division, or take a number of other top posts—jobs that would make her one of the bank's most prominent faces on Wall Street.

Yet in many ways Hammack is atypical at Goldman. She doesn't project the swagger of its high fliers and keeps her ties to a number of illustrious industry figures under close wrap. Relatively few at the bank are aware, for instance, that her father helped start Renaissance Technologies, one of the world's most renowned money-making machines.

She may well be the type of leader that Goldman needs as it asks shareholders to believe in a less flashy strategy for re-establishing its industry dominance.

"She's brilliant, and she can explain the most complicated things in standard English," said Marty Chavez, the bank's former CFO. "Once I thought of challenging her and asked if she could explain something in a Haiku," he said, recalling a conversation about liquidity coverage ratios. By the next morning, her response was waiting in his inbox. "That's Beth."

Now, Goldman is placing her work squarely in the public glare. Last month the bank laid out a strategy for boosting revenue with a mix of new business lines and technology—an initiative that soon hit its first bumps with a spate of executive departures. But just as important to the firm's new profitability goals are its plans for improving the way it funds itself.

"That column sits squarely on the shoulders of Beth," current CFO Stephen Scherr said. "Her sensibility about the markets is uncommon among individuals who sit in the seat of the treasurer."

Debating Promotion

She would go on to hold a variety of key roles dealing with agency bonds, rates, and repo (repurchase agreement) trading. Ultimately, her rise to prominence was driven by her ability to deal with regulators and government bodies after she made partner in 2010. She's now chair of an influential Wall Street advisory group that has the ear of the U.S. Treasury secretary.

One snag was the inclusion of her name in high-profile civil litigation accusing big banks of colluding to rig the prices of bonds issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Plaintiffs named dozens of Wall Street executives—not as defendants but as "key personnel." Like others, the firm settled. Hammack's career has continued apace.

Her elevation to treasurer in 2018 was controversial within the bank for a different reason: Top executives couldn't agree on whether the trading unit could spare one of its rare senior women. It's another sign of the tensions CEO David Solomon will face as he tries to make good on promises for advancing women, both at his own firm and others.

Goldman's treasury is in the midst of a shift, too, reducing its reliance on potentially fleeting or expensive funding markets and embracing a model increasingly based on customer deposits and managing corporate cash flows. That will be integral to boosting revenue, thanks to an accounting quirk. Improving the mix of funding and cutting interest costs feeds straight into the bank's top line.

For Hammack, the job may just be the start of infiltrating the top tier of the male-dominated firm.

"Goldman is at least trying to solve for this difficult problem," said Leslie Sillcox, one of the bank's named executive officers when it went public in 1999. "Twenty years later, I would have expected a lot more women in senior roles across the industry."

See also:

Debating Promotion

Instant Insights /

The Woman Rising from Trader to Goldman Treasurer—and Beyond

Related Stories

Recommended For You