Goldman Sachs announced two new leaders in its rapidly changing consumer business, Insider has learned.
Swati Bhatia, a former Stripe exec, is joining the firm as a partner to lead Goldman's direct-to-consumer strategy, according to an internal memo viewed by Insider. Bhatia was most recently the chief payments risk officer at Stripe, an online payments startup last valued at $36 billion.
Meanwhile, David Stark, a partner at Goldman that helped lead the Apple Card launch and the firm's purchase of General Motors' credit-card business, will take over responsibility for large partnerships within the consumer business.
The appointments are part of Goldman's two-pronged strategy when it comes to building out its consumer business: To reach consumers directly through Marcus and via partnerships. Bhatia will lead the former while Stark will focus on the latter.
Both Bhatia and Stark will report to Omer Ismail, partner and head of Goldman's consumer business.
As Goldman pushes further into consumer banking, Stephanie Cohen and Tucker York, coheads of the bank's consumer and wealth-management division, have been rolling out big organizational changes. In January, York and Cohen named six new product leaders in a memo to employees.
Goldman also established a strategy team within CWM led by Jemma Wolfe and Stephan Lambert. The team is focused on consumer and wealth-specific strategy and acquisitions.
Beyond people moves, the firm is investing big in new products like AI-powered checking accounts to win consumers, a relatively new market for the investment bank. Last October, Goldman launched Marcus Insights, and subsequently shuttered Clarity Money, the personal financial management app it acquired in 2018. Adam Dell, founder of Clarity Money, retired from the firm in January.
Here's the full memo announcing the new leadership appointments inside the Goldman Sachs' consumer bank
February 8, 2021
Swati Bhatia Joins Goldman Sachs as a Partner and Head of Direct to Consumer; David Stark to Lead Large PartnershipsAs we have shared, the Consumer vision is to create the leading digital consumer banking platform, delivering a comprehensive offering to millions of customers. We have two primary go-to-market strategies: offering our products directly to consumers and embedding our product capabilities into the ecosystems of partners. To further this strategy, we are pleased to announce the following leadership updates in the Consumer business.
Swati Bhatia will join the firm as a partner and head of the Direct to Consumer business. In this role, Swati will drive growth and create an integrated experience across all Marcus by Goldman Sachs products. Elisabeth Kozack, Des McDaid, Irfan Rendeci and Marcos Rosenberg will report to Swati. With a track record of innovation, Swati brings more than 20 years of experience across technology and consumer banking to her new role at Goldman Sachs. Most recently, she was chief payments risk officer at Stripe, where she led a global team across risk, product and operations. Prior to Stripe, Swati held several leadership positions at PayPal and Capital One.
David Stark will lead Large Partnerships for the Consumer business. With his leadership, we will continue to partner with industry-leading brands and define our financial cloud strategy. David joined the firm in 2015 and was named partner in 2018. He has played an integral role in the Consumer business since its early days, helping to launch Marcus, build and launch Apple Card, and sign our credit card partnership with General Motors. Prior to joining the firm, David served as head of credit for Citi's Global Card division and held several leadership positions across consumer and small business banking.
In their new and expanded roles, Swati and David will report to Omer Ismail. Please join us in congratulating Swati and David and wishing them success.
Tucker York
Stephanie Cohen
Harit Talwar
Omer Ismail
