She Was Set to Break Goldman's Glass Ceiling. Now Beth Hammack Is Leaving

What You Need to Know

Hammack, 52, was once seen internally as a top choice to become the firm’s next chief financial officer.
She moved into her latest role running the financing unit after being passed over for CFO in 2021.
Now, just one woman is charge of one of the bank’s three units: Stephanie Cohen, who leads Platform Solutions, which is being dismantled.

Beth Hammack had been billed as one of the most likely candidates to break into Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s all-male top tier.

Now, she’s calling it quits after 30 years at the Wall Street giant, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Hammack, 52, was once seen internally as a top choice to become the next chief financial officer — a rare elevation for a woman to one of the bank’s most senior positions.

Even on Wall Street, where men dominate most firms, the lack of women at Goldman’s highest levels has been a sore point internally. No woman has ever been appointed to the role of chair, chief executive officer, president or CFO in the company’s history.

That challenge was underscored last month when Goldman created two new committees within its investment bank. It tapped 25 executives as the emerging leaders who would have a say in running its sprawling trading and banking business.

Only three women made the cut, including Hammack, a former treasurer who most recently was a co-head of the firm’s global financing group.

Goldman has pledged to lift more women into its most senior roles, and for years Hammack had been among a small cohort who made the list in every behind-the-scenes conversation. Insiders saw her filling jobs that would have made her one of the bank’s most prominent faces on Wall Street.

“Goldman Sachs is an extraordinary institution that manufactures the world’s best executive talent. Beth had an incredible 30-year run of transforming businesses,” said Katie Koch, the CEO of TCW Group and a former colleague. “She is unbelievably well positioned for her next leadership role.”

A representative for New York-based Goldman and Hammack declined to comment.

More Experience

She moved into her latest role running the financing unit after being passed over for CFO in 2021. At the time, the bank’s executives explained the move as an effort to help her gain more experience running a revenue-generating group that would set her up for more senior positions later.

Hammack grew up outside Philadelphia and had two summer internships at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Her father, Howard Morgan, is a venture capitalist who helped billionaire Jim Simons start Renaissance Technologies. She joined Goldman in 1993 and began to climb the ranks within its trading division.