Goldman Dealmaker, Yoel Zaoui, Leaves The Firm After 24 Years

Another Goldmanite bites the dust.

Yoel Zaoui, co-head of the firm’s global mergers and acquisitions group, is leaving Goldman Sachs after more than two decades at the firm, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters.

Zaouie is credited with having advised on a number of major deals during his 24 years at the bank. Among them, Mittal Steel's hostile 2006 takeover of competitor steel and mining company Arcelor, and a 2004 deal that created the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, Bloomberg notes.

Zaoie’s departure comes amidst a broader Goldman exodus. Just under a month ago, London-based Goldman executive Greg Smith publicly announced his resignation from the company in a now-infamous New York Times op-ed. In it, Smith lamented the rise of what he described as a "toxic and destructive" culture at the firm.

Smith and Zaoie are far from the only Goldmanites to depart. Last year, a full fifty partners left Goldman Sachs, and two long-standing heads of the firm’s securities trading division already left in January, according to The New York Times.

Nor is Goldman alone in suffering defections from its top ranks. In early March, JPMorgan Chase watched its global head of proprietary trading leave to start a hedge fund. That move came as JPMorgan prepared to permanently shutter its proprietary trading operation in response to new restrictions from the Volker rule, which stricly limits the sort of bets a bank can make with its own money.