Goldman Sachs replaces retiring partner with unusual young(ish) MD

Goldman Sachs is parting company with a senior European M&A banker who's been around for 15 years. He has two replacements, one of whom is making a curious internal move. 

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It's understood that Johannes (Jan) Fritze, a London-based Goldman Sachs partner who joined from Citi in 2010 is retiring. Fritze ran Goldman's EMEA and APAC real estate group. 

Goldman is replacing Fritze with two people, one of whom is not an M&A banker. Heiko Weber and Trent Wilkins will be the new co-heads of EMEA real estate for the firm. Weber is a real estate banker who joined Goldman as an analyst in 2005 and seems par for the course. Wilkins, however, is a managing director who's been co-running the EMEA corporate origination group and who comes from a debt capital markets (DCM) background. 

Wilkins graduated from the London School of Economics in 2011 and by our reckoning is in his mid to late 30s. His promotion is not exactly equivalent to Kunal Shah's attainment of partner as a trader aged 32 in 2014, but is still impressive. It takes longer to progress in investment banking. 

Wilkins was only promoted to co-head of EMEA corporate investment grade origination last June, so his unexpected move into M&A represents his second new job in less than a year. 

Goldman declined to comment on the moves. 

Wilkins may now be on track to make partner next Goldman promotes people in 2026. Last year, the firm said that the average tenure of its partners was 16 years. Wilkins joined from Barclays in 2018, so if he's promoted in 2026 he'll have made it in half the time. 

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