Goldman Executives Leave Wall Street to Join Walmart Venture

Chief of Consumer Banking at Goldman Sachs, Omer Ismail, is leaving the company to join a fintech venture headed by Walmart. It is reported that his top lieutenant, David Stark who was recently named the head of large partnerships, will be joining him. Details about their moves are still unknown.

Ismail graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in 2002 and joined Goldman as an analyst soon after. He obtained his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2007 and has served in multiple leadership positions within the company. A key player in the development of Marcus, Goldman’s high-yield savings bank, which has grown into a multi-billion dollar business within five years, Ismail was a part of a group of Goldman executives who helped the company set food in Main Street.

Stark joined Goldman five years ago and has been pivotal in Marcus’s growth, forming partnerships with Apple inc. and General Motors Co.

“Our business has serious momentum and a deep and growing bench of talent,” said Andrew Williams, a Goldman Sachs spokesman in an interview with Bloomberg. “We wish these two well.”

The departure of Ismail and Stark leaves only two other senior executives in the consumer business arm of the company, Ismail’s predecessor Harit Talwar who is the current Chairman of Marcus, and Swati Bhatia who joined the firm only weeks ago.