Goldman Sachs to Drop D.E.I. Criteria for Board Members

Goldman Sachs will no longer explicitly consider race, gender and sexual orientation when evaluating potential board members. The change comes after an agreement with the National Legal and Policy Center, which withdrew a shareholder proposal as part of the deal; the group has a small investment in the bank and has pressed companies to drop D.E.I.

mandates. The organization has announced similar arrangements with American Express and Deere & Company. The move continues a broader retreat from diversity mandates under the Trump administration. For years, Chief Executive David Solomon had made overhauling Goldman’s traditionally white, male-dominated workforce a priority, setting recruiting-class targets and requiring at least one—and later two—"diverse" board members for companies seeking to go public with Goldman as an underwriter.

Last February, the firm said it would drop the IPO board policy and scrapped the explicit recruiting-class goals. Federal and legal developments have also changed the landscape.

United States

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