The chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O’Neill, is retiring from the firm later this year, after 20 years of service.

The role of chairman of GSAM was specifically created for O'Neill, and therefore the firm does not expect to replace him.

O’Neill, who is based in London, joined Goldman Sachs in 1995 as a partner, taking on the roles of co-head of global economics research and chief currency economist.

In 2001 he was appointed head of global economics, commodities and strategy research, before taking up his current position as chairman of the asset management business three years ago. He is also involved in a number of non-profit organizations specializing in education.

Much of O’Neill’s research has focused on identifying economic trends, most notably perhaps defining the concept of BRICs.

“Jim’s BRIC thesis has challenged conventional thinking about emerging markets and, as a result, has had a significant economic and social impact,” Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, and Gary Cohn, president and chief operating officer, said in a joint statement.

In other recent developments, last month Goldman Sachs reported net revenues of $34.16 billion and net earnings of $7.48 billion for the year ended December 31, 2012, up from $28.8 billion and $4.4 billion respectively.