Goldman Sachs’ chief of staff, Russell Horwitz, is out by end of June: the second management committee member to announce a departure this year, and the exit strips the executive office of nearly two decades of institutional memory.
Horwitz joined in 2004 as a speechwriter for then-CEO Hank Paulson, worked up to chief of staff under Lloyd Blankfein, left in 2020 as deputy chief of staff, and returned to the role in 2023. His time at Goldman spanned the bank’s two defining regulatory crises: he was in the room during the 2007-08 financial crisis and later through Goldman’s 1MDB foreign bribery resolution. Once he steps down, he’ll carry the “advisory director” title — Goldman’s standard soft landing for outgoing senior partners.
The first June departure is chief legal officer Kathryn Ruemmler, who announced in February she’d leave following a Justice Department release of emails and other documents exposing her ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender and financier.
Together, Ruemmler and Horwitz owned the machinery Goldman deploys when regulators or prosecutors call: she ran reputational risk, he ran communications, government affairs, and corporate engagement. The advisory director arrangement keeps Horwitz nominally on call, but advisory directors don’t sit in management committee meetings. CEO David Solomon praised his “incisive perspectives and thoughtful counsel on a wide range of consequential issues.” That’s a polished send-off. What Goldman actually gets in return is a less populated executive office heading into the second half of 2026.
Both departures take effect June 30.
Diana Kowalski