And that starts with our own people. She grew up in Augusta, Ga., and holds an MA in Investigative Journalism from The Cronkite School. Jennifer Tescher: You went there right out of graduating from the University of Illinois and youve experienced a tremendous amount of success. Second, in kind of a funny way, theres not much things that are hard and scary after youve lived with the you alone center of the ice, audience in front of you, judges behind you, couple of minutes to do something that youve practiced for hours upon hours. . She went on to a more traditional M&A role in the industrials team. Youve got to figure out whats important to you and what you really want to spendmoney on. You mentioned Marcus, I think its fair to say that four plus years ago when Goldman Sachs launched Marcus, it wasnt exactly what anyone was expecting to have a titan of Wall Street, all of a sudden building a business to focus on the financial needs of everyday people. And the reality is that is the right advice for our clients. And by the way, if you take all of that and everything else were doing, weve now found that two out of three of our Marcus loans customers, after they take out a Marcus loan, their overall debt does decline. And I thought a lot about this because as you change into a new role, you have to think about what are the things that have helped you to be successful? Women. Kristin Broughton Reprint For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here. They are not only of course the right thing to do, but it is the only way to run the business. And that you knew that you needed to listen and learn from the rest of the businesses, but that also you needed to learn about consumers, given that a growing part of the bank strategy was Marcus. By doing that, you can actually, authentically be the person you want without assuming that you have to be someone else., Make it easier to make the right decisions. But by the way, you cant do that always at scale. Because for us, this is a business and a strategic imperative. We're getting to the moment where we can help someone holistically manage their financial lives," Stephanie Cohen,. For example, theres a bunch of statistics showing that if you give people the option toinvest in a 401(k) plan, many people wont do it. Stephanie Cohen is Goldman Sachs' Chief Strategy Officer and an Ex Officio member of the Management Committee. Stephanie Cohen is Global Co-Head of Consumer and Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs, the only woman to currently lead one of the firm's four revenue divisions. By continuing to use our site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. And by the way, how it made them actually better customers over time, because we got them through a really tough period. And the question is, how do you do that at scale? Cohens elevation to the committee followed just days later strong evidence she has the incoming CEOs confidence. And what were hoping with Marcus Invest is through the content and through the ease with which people can go through the signup process and then the investment process, people are going to be able to interact with an investing in a way thats understandable, but also is going to help them achieve whatever financial goals that they have. Or what lessons have you taken from that and in your leadership roles at Goldman? And by the way, that portfolio is different for different people. Company president John Waldron and Stephanie Cohen, global head of the Platform Solutions unit, echoed Solomon's comments about the bank's consumer business, signalling a further retreat from its . But in Marcus and in consumer, we want to bring the best of Goldman Sachs capability to them directly on their phone, wherever they are and however they want to be served. Some inside the bank wonder whether shes destined to rise even higher. And so I do think this idea of bringing the best of Goldman Sachs, this corporate franchise and the relationships we have with those brands and then taking these in many cases, digital capabilities weve built in the consumer business and embedding them into those ecosystems in a way that serves their customers, I think is one of the ways that we can access this much broader audience. Stephanie Cohen: Before that, she was Global Head of Financial Sponsor M&A in the Investment Banking Division (IBD). I think Goldman has a growing number of excellent women at the firm. Stephanie Cohen, a 41-year-old grad of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has charted a rapid rise inside Goldman Sachs, landing a seat on its most-coveted decision-making. You can connect with me on Twitter @JenTescher. And I talked to you about three things that I think have helped me and the teams around me be successful. For the best Barrons.com experience, please update to a modern browser. The banking industry appears to be stuck when it comes to diversifying the leadership ranks. On Monday, the company unveiled a branded terrace at the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson that it hopes will inspire students to want to learn more about Goldman Sachs, she said. Our goal in our vision, in our people, is to empower our clients and customers to achieve their financial goals and we think help them live better lives. Im glad that you talked about inclusive capitalism because one of the more notable pronouncements from your boss, Goldman chair and CEO David Solomon, was that Goldman was only going to be willing to take companies public if they had at least one woman on their board. The Wall Street heavyweight, which had about 44,000 global employees at the end of 2021, is particularly focused on engineering talent in Dallas-Fort Worth, said Stephanie Cohen, who co-leads the consumer and wealth management division at Goldman. 2021-11-30T13:05:49.103Z. Goldman's $2.2 billion acquisition of GreenSky allows the bank to beef up its customer base and gives it access to the fintech's network of more than 10,000 merchants. Stephanie Cohen: How big the Dallas operation will get is a source of regular speculation in the North Texas real estate community. As an investment banker for close to 20 years, my presence in board rooms was often an anomaly. Copyright 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Stephanie Cohen, MFT is a specialist in Psychiatry: Child/Adolescent who has an office at 710 S Broadway Street, Walnut Creek, CA 94596 and can be reached at 1-925-295-4145. The world is awash in capital and you never see that. I used to get off the ice from practices and be soaking wet because you just are cleaning up the ice falling because its the only way to learn a new skill. She is now even given the place at the top of the bank. Goldman now has credit-card deals with You, it turns out I learned, were once a competitive figure skater growing up. Are you okay? And being really happy because you could tell that you were almost there. The strategy document identifies potential avenues for cutting cybercriminals off from financing, as well as other actions banks can take. Cohen, who oversees 11,000 employees in her division, said that the business is divided along three lines: ultra-high- wealth households; companies and their employees; and consumers. How does this all fit together? You should spendmoney on things that truly make you happy. In the latest in a rapid career of promotions, Cohen, 43, took over as co-head of consumer and wealth management in January, overseeing consumer bank Marcus, which has racked up $97 billion in deposits. Cohen, 41, joined Goldman Sachs in 1999 as an analyst and worked her way up in the investment banking division to managing director in 2008 and partner six years later. The other place that weve been embedding it is very deeply in our investing businesses, because what we noticed was that inclusive and diverse teams outperformed and they were under invested in. And so the main thing Im focused on is people internally and externally. Im doing it every day. Goldman Sachs Group wants to be your digital banker, and it has assigned the job to Stephanie Cohen, marking her second year on the Barron's list. And so this real focus on execution, which I no doubt learned by being a mergers and acquisitions banker inside of Goldman Sachs. Jennifer Tescher: And then it turned on Robinhood and Goldman is in such an interesting place because youre both Wall Street and youre a FinTech in a way. The High. Theyre sitting there every day and theyre trying to figure out how they can do things in a really complex financial world that are simple and transparent and valuable. But, if you make the enrollment default and you have to opt out if you dont want to do it, more people end up investing in 401(k).. Whether thats direct disbursements in our loans, meaning when you sign up for a Marcus loan, we can directly pay off your other debts. Im wondering how youre viewing that experience in light of the coming launch of these new products for Marcus customers? Talk a little bit about how Marcus has evolved and where you see that business heading now that youve reached, say adolescence. We want to be your primary bank. And the great thing about what were going to do with Marcus Invest and kind of in contrast to some of whats been going on over the last couple of weeks, is were going to take that capability, the capability to provide this diversified portfolio from our advisor led business into our digitally led business and really bring the best of Goldman Sachs capabilities and products to hopefully millions of consumers. The second thing is this kind of get stuff done attitude. Meet the forward thinking leaders challenging the status quo and unleashing creative new ways of improving financial health by seeing their customers, employees, and communities in 3D. And so I would be that person that was like, Please just explain this to me from the base level. And when you get to that base level, you actually start to understand not only the products and how theyre all executed, but how it affects an end customer. Stephanie Cohen quickly rose through the ranks at Goldman Sachs to become one of the youngest members of the banks senior leadership, joining just a small handful of women at that level. And I remember these moments of falling really hard and your parents, your coach is like, Oh my. No question. . And one of the things that we kind of put out there in the wild was this idea of being able to pay your credit card bill multiple times a month in the Apple cart. And then we have this great program where we work with companies on financial wellness for their employees and we call that Ayco. And so I did that. [1] [2] Prior to March 2008, she was the firm's Chief Investment Strategist. And there are so many different organizations and Jen, your organization is one of them where, how can we all work together to try to fix this? And so kind of being happy with that rather than it being a negative, it being a positive I think its one of the most important life lessons and figure skating teaches you that in spades. Chief Strategy Officer, Goldman Sachs Much has been made over the past few months about Stephanie Cohen's age. And so thats really what were trying to do with what were doing in consumer and in Marcus. Got it. And when I was in my role as chief strategy officer, we created this thing called Accelerate, which we call our internal innovation engine. And then we did savings. Welcome to EMERGE Everywhere. Close. We have the ability to have access to our clients in Texas but also more broadly across the United States and internationally. But she really got it. Stephanie Cohen is now the management committee's youngest, with the rare label of 'ex officio' member. To learn more about the work and research we do, please visit emerge.finhealthnetwork.org. Im a big question asker too. And that has definitely been sped up by whats gone on with COVID. Upon arriving, her trajectory changed, and she has remained at the firm for over two decades in a variety of roles. In her new role overseeing consumer and wealth management for the organization, she shepherds a vision for diversity and inclusion that prioritizes broad consumer access to high-quality financial solutions. Stephanie Cohen, culture builder, lifelong learner, thanks so much for joining me on Emerge Everywhere. One Goldman Sachs go-to-market strategy combined with products developers love and can easily adopt 2 Business-to-business with innovative, client- and Jennifer Tescher: By the way, a lot of people who spend their careers in financial services. Yeah. In case you cant find any email from our side, please check the spam folder. Because you cant do things exactly the same way. Goldman Sachs Group wants to be your digital banker, and it has assigned the job to Stephanie Cohen, marking her second year on the Barrons list. We call those businesses, private wealth management and personal financial management. She said the senior leadership team understands that diversity and inclusion is a "business imperative'' and that "this needs to be discussed in the same meetings where we talk about revenue or investment strategies. Goldman Sachs CEO shuffles consumer banking, wealth management leaders [CNBC] Tags. Stephanie Cohen is joining Goldman's most elite tier, as its youngest banker | Mint Get 60% off on Mint+The Economist Gainers & Losers Fri Feb 17 2023 15:29:29 Top Gainers Top Losers Home /. Stephanie Cohen: She has worked onhistoric large corporate deals, including Chryslers repayment of a U.S. government loan, which marked the automakers comeback after the 2008 Financial Crisis. Its been really fun getting to know all of them. Goldman plans to add checking to Marcus later this year but doesnt have a set date, Cohen said. And so, while theres a lot of sadness in that, were hopefully, the idea is turning that into opportunity. My husband and I were talking about it last night, we all still need a lot of help. For example, one of the things I learned early on was that when I was on big conference calls with lots of people, everyone would know when I spoke because I was the only woman., If you work in a company and you want to become the CEO or the CFO, when you look at the person who has the role, and you might think, Im nothing like that person, so I can never do that., Instead, I found it really helpful to look at abroadgroup ofpeople and look for things that I like or relate to. And weve turned that into a lot of different financial products, but the reality is were just trying to solve those problems for consumers. And we are lucky because we get to spend our entire days focusing on people. I find that being in the business that Im in, similar things happen at cocktail parties, I get random questions, financial questions and I think its clear that I am not a financial planner.