Goldman Sachs ax diversity rule that has “fulfilled its purpose”

The international chief of Goldman Sachs has said that the bank abandoned a rule of internal diversity that prevented him from advising all male advice, all white boards on the company’s floats because it was no longer necessary.

The investment bank had committed that it would only help a company sell its shares in a stock exchange if it had two diverse members of the Board, one of whom had to be a woman.

But Richard Gnodde told the BBC: “That policy was implemented to try to boost a change in behavior and I think that has happened.”

In a broad interview, he also said that the United Kingdom government needed to continue and begin infrastructure projects now and warned that the uncertainty about US politics was to cushion the “animal spirit” of companies.

Goldman Sachs introduced their diversity policy in together in 2020, initially ordering that the companies that wanted to float had to have a diverse member, before increasing it to two people.

Mr. Gnodde said: “I think the important thing is that you have a diversity of views on that board and if you look at these companies, they have all adopted diversity, it has moved.

“This was a policy of a decade ago, I think it has fulfilled its purpose.”

Last December, a Federal Court of the United States ruled that Nasdaq, the stock market index, could not impose rules that required companies to have women and minorities in their meetings or explain why they did not.

A Goldman Sachs spokesman said: “As a result of legal developments related to the diversity requirements of the Board, we finished our formal diversity policy of the Board.”

In one of his first acts after having sworn, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order to end the “radical and wasteful programs of the Dei government (diversity, equity and inclusion)”.

Since then, several companies have rowing in various hiring programs, including Google and Meta, the company that has Instagram and Facebook.

When asked if companies were going back from diversity policies due to Trump’s White House, Gnodde said: “I can only speak for ourselves, I don’t think that is the case.

“Our ambitions are continuing to take things forward and, frankly, go much further than we have been.”

However, he admitted that the uncertainty caused by Trump’s policy about commercial tariffs was weighing the “animal spirits” of companies and their appetite for investment.

“I think at this time, mood is on the margin (is) a bit tempered, because people are not safe about exactly what the result of politics will be and exactly what the impacts will be,” Gnodde said.

Initially, Trump said he would impose 25% tariffs to Canada, Mexico and China. However, then he stopped them against Canada and Mexico for 30 days.

Since then, the president has subsequently announced that 25% tariffs would impose all steel and aluminum that enter the United States, causing furious responses from the tastes of Canada and the European Union.

Looking at the United Kingdom, Mr. Gnodde urged the Government to activate infrastructure projects sooner rather than later.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves Recently announced its support for a third track in Heathrow In addition to expanding the airports of Luton and Gatwick, and build a “growth corridor” between Oxford and Cambridge.

However, these projects are not expected to be completed for several years.

The government has made the growth of the economy a key policy, but the growth of the United Kingdom has slowed down, According to official figures.

Gnodde said: “Long -range projects are very interesting. We need to put them in their place, but they will take a long time.”

He added: “We find some infrastructure constructions that we must do, either in the energy sector, either in transport, improving the road network, something in the energy transition.

“All these plans are found in the Treasury desktop. Why don’t we put them to tender, that the private sector offers in terms that will be attractive to the private sector, and will the competition see”?

In a report on the impulse of small businesses in Britain, published on Wednesday, Goldman Sachs said: “If there are two things that we know of the first six months of a new administration in the United Kingdom, it is that growth is the national mission pressing and unlocking is perhaps the biggest challenge that consecutive governments have faced. “

Gnodde said that work had “sent a strong message in the front of the competition” after that Recently he expelled the president of the Competition and Market Authority.

He added that the government pulling such a lever could light the growth so that the United Kingdom is “globally competitive.”

He also suggested that the United Kingdom companies had to consolidate to compete worldwide.

“How many of these players do we need?” He said. “How many telecommunications companies do we need? How many banks do we need? I think the market should be able to boost that if we are going to compete on the global stage.”