Goldman Sachs Melbourne Loses Nine Advisors to Rival

Christopher Owen

11 February 2008

Goldman Sachs JBWere, the Australian wealth management business of the US investment bank, has hemorrhaged a further nine staff from its Melbourne office. Earlier this month nine of the Brisbane advisory team resigned, including the three most experienced private wealth advisors. Goldman has also faced mass resignations at its offices in Adelaide, Perth and the Gold Coast over the past 12 months. The nine Melbourne-based private wealth management advisors who resigned last week are understood to be joining Evans & Partners — the company formed by David Evans, former head of Goldman Sach's private wealth division, last year. Mr Evans signed a non-compete deal with Goldman and agreed not to poach staff. That agreement expired last Monday. Three Melbourne-based Goldman staff resigned on Thursday, and a further six on Friday. Nearly all were members of the JBWere team before its merger with Goldman Sachs in 2003. According to Australian journal The Age, Goldman Sachs JBWere's chief executive Craig Drummond and head of private wealth management Paul Heath, sent a joint statement to all staff in response to the latest departures from the private wealth teams in Melbourne and Brisbane. "Following a very challenging period in our Australian PWM business, where we have seen groups of advisors leave the firm, we thought it was important to give you our response," said the statement. "The values and philosophies of our PWM business are unchanged. Our number one business principle remains — the interests of our clients always come first. "An evolution in the needs of our clients and our acknowledgment of this does not constitute a loss of integrity or signal a change in the way we value our clients … there have been members of the PWM team who took a view that the strategy of client service we are seeking to offer was not one they felt they wanted to deliver." The departures reduce the number of advisors at Goldman's private wealth management division in Melbourne from 85 to 76.