Goldman to Refuse IPOs If All Directors Are White, Straight Men

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-2…


is this just stupid PR stuff? I doubt there’s even one company that’s ALL male and ALL white to begin with.

33 Comments
 

If this is true, which I doubt, it’s fucking stupid. I don’t have any knowledge on the internal ongoings of GS but yeah this is probably some pr bs. Besides, wouldn't GS want as much business as possible even if a small handful of those businesses don’t meet ‘diversity quotas.’ 

 
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Quotas in general should not exist. Companies IPOing for the first time in many cases have a BOD that consists of founders and primary investors. They are who they are.

In an essence, this is a way of coddling, as the belief is that if you're a diversity candidate you won't be able to make it unless it is handed to you on a silver platter. The brightest entrepreneurs in this country were defined by their grit + rigor + raw intelligence. Think of Mark Cuban. 

IMO people who are handed things to them rarely have what it takes to compete. I prefer natural selection over quotas, but that's just me.

 
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“The firm does not Yet have A similar policy in Asia.” Good move. I can’t imagine the gall of some European coming to a Japanese, Chinese or Indian company filled with locals and telling them you’re not “diverse”.

Kind of like how Americans decided Spanish wasn’t sophisticated enough for them and started inventing new words (latinx wtf??). Smh lol

 

Agreed, I’m a minority but not the right type, so am not considered for diversity. In my experience with quotas and the people who push diversity, I’ve found it very condescending. I’m sure they’re coming from a good place, wanting to make sure people aren’t being denied for immutable traits but it doesn’t hold everyone to the same standard and that’s not fair to anyone. There should be equal opportunity but that does not equate to equal outcome.

 

Pretty sure this definition in the modern era encapsulates less less than 5% of all IPOs

I can't think of a single company where there a no female / gay / asian directors (which in this scenario apparently count as minority for expediency while in every other scenario being asian is counted against them)

It's a nice little PR move that virtually has no effect on Goldman's business moving forward 

 

Can I reject using Goldman as my advisor unless they have a proportion of Jewish partners and members of the c suite and management commitee that matches the demographic makeup of the United States?

For the record I don't care if Goldman wants to hire all Jews.  But it's pretty hypocritical  for them to call out companies with lots of white men on boards when this is a bank that's been extremely disporportionally run by white jewish men.  They've had like 1 non white jewish male CEO in the past 100 something years.

 

Your comment about Jews and GS is not quite accurate. There have been a few non Jewish CEOs with recent ones including Corzine and Paulson. I doubt the majority of execs at GS are Jewish. Now, it is true that as percentage, Jewish execs at GS is high compared to the population and this is partly because historically, they have had a better chance of finding a job in finance compared to other industries.

 

You listed the 2 non Jewish ceos they have had.  Thats it.  And I see nothing wrong with that.  But they should not call out companies for having lots of white men when they overhire white  jews.   I'm counting like half of their executive officers as being likely jewish. Again, i don't care, I understand there was a time when Morgan Stanley and merril lynch banned Jews so Goldman was sort of a save haven spot to work(and right fully so).  But those days are over and there's nothing stopping Goldman from having a black ceo (or anyone black as an executive officer).  

In before I get shut down for antisemitism.  I don't dontnthink what I am saying is antisemitic at all.  I have nothing wrong with their history and hieng practices...only the hypocrisy in this new policy.

 

being a white man is catching heat these days. i think imma identify as ashkenazi going forward

heister: Look at all these wannabe richies hating on an expensive salad. https://arthuxtable.com/
 

Sounds pretty racist to me.  Would they reject an IPO if all the Directors are all gay black men?  Certainly not.  They're effectively saying then that one sub group is acceptable to discriminate against and another is not (not that this is at all a novel concept lately).   They should focus on trying to lift up and support more people from minority groups, not put down people just because they're in the majority.  Of course this is pretty obviously just lip service so we can probably disregard it all together.

"If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

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