Goldman Sachs CEO quits DJing following criticism it had “become a distraction”

CEO of investment banking company Goldman Sachs David Solomon has announced his retirement from DJing following reported unease among the company's board members that the side hustle was making him take his eye off the ball at his main job.

Solomon, who performs as D-Sol, faced criticism “that his hobby created a distraction from his work” after the Wall Street giant saw profits down by a third in 2022 - resulting in one of the largest rounds of layoffs in Goldman history.

The CEO has now pressed pause on his side hobby following board discussions, The Guardian reports, citing concern that the media attention surrounding his DJ career had caused a distraction.

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Solomon has reportedly been DJing long before chairing Goldman in 2018, with a career dating back over a decade. In his years of DJing, he’s performed at high-profile events including Lollapalooza festival last year, his last known public performance.

According to The Financial Times, Solomon also performed at an event in the Hamptons, New York, in 2020 amidst global lockdowns, which was subsequently criticised and became the subject of an investigation by the New York Health Department.

A source close to Solomon told The Financial Times that Solomon “has decided to stop DJing at high-profile events following criticism that his hobby created a distraction from his work leading the Wall Street firm.”

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Tony Fratto, a Goldman Sachs spokesperson, said that despite the criticism: “David hasn’t publicly DJed an event in well over a year, which we have confirmed multiple times in the past. Music was not a distraction from David’s work,” he added. “The media attention became a distraction.”

Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs reported that net earnings at the company had fallen by a third each year in the last quarter. Total net earnings were down $1 billion this September compared to last year.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Assistant Editor, follow her on Twitter