Speaker 1: Now all sectors are adjusting to what a Donald Trump
Speaker 1: presidency will mean for them. We want to have a
Speaker 1: conversation next about what it could mean for philanthropy. This
Speaker 1: is Goldman Sacks is holding its investment competition today, where
Speaker 1: it's analysts around the world get to pitch for a
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars prize tonight to a
Speaker 1: charity of their choice. We have Asahi Pompey with us
Speaker 1: in studio, whose global head of Corporate Engagement and President
Speaker 1: of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. Good morning, Sah. He lovely
Speaker 1: to have you with us in studio. I do wonder
Speaker 1: what the election results, what that means for how you're
Speaker 1: thinking about next year. A lot of the policies espoused
Speaker 1: by the incoming president would be perhaps rolling back areas
Speaker 1: of government where perhaps philanthropy could be stepping in. What
Speaker 1: are you thinking about in terms of what could change
Speaker 1: next year?
Speaker 2: Look, I'd like to start off by just saying that,
Speaker 2: you know, I echo the words of our CEO, David
Speaker 2: Solomon in congratulating President elect Trump on his victory, and
Speaker 2: we look forward to working with the new administration on
Speaker 2: what we hope will be strong policies for economic growth.
Speaker 2: I think, like everybody else, we're going to be sort
Speaker 2: of watching what the impact will be on markets and
Speaker 2: policies so we can best serve our clients. As I
Speaker 2: think about the philanthropic landscape, I'd say a couple of things.
Speaker 2: One is, as we think about cultivating talent, we think
Speaker 2: about what that talent feels about the impact of Goldman,
Speaker 2: Sachs and Frankly companies where they work in communities. We
Speaker 2: know that seventy five percent of gen Z and millennials
Speaker 2: say that an organization's community engagement their social impact is
Speaker 2: absolutely critical to where they choose to work. Secondly, we
Speaker 2: know that the overall job satisfaction, eighty six percent of
Speaker 2: gen Z say that their sense of purpose, whether they
Speaker 2: have a sense of purpose at work, increases not only
Speaker 2: their job satisfaction but their personal well being. So as
Speaker 2: you think about that backdrop of any company, you have
Speaker 2: to make sure that you're engaged in activities that's going
Speaker 2: to feed that. And one of the great things that
Speaker 2: we're doing today is that we're have this competition of
Speaker 2: our analysts and they'll be able to have their hands
Speaker 2: on millions of philanthropic dollars and where those dollars go.
Speaker 2: And this is the ninth year of the competition.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it sounds really interesting. I want to get onto
Speaker 3: that in just a minute, but just a further kind
Speaker 3: of follow up question, given the importance of the Trump
Speaker 3: White House, you know, Goldman Sachs is one Million Black
Speaker 3: Women Initiative, the Black and Business Education Program, and a
Speaker 3: raft of other Golden Sachs and Golden Sachs Foundation programs.
Speaker 3: They are putting literally billions of dollars over many, many
Speaker 3: years into addressing racial and gender inequality, for example. Do
Speaker 3: you lean into that given that the next four years
Speaker 3: is going to be a very conservative administration, how do
Speaker 3: you think about it?
Speaker 2: I mean, when we launched our one Million Black Women Initiative,
Speaker 2: it's two things. It's ten billion of investment capital and
Speaker 2: one hundred million of philanthropic capital. What's important to note,
Speaker 2: I think is one, in terms of our Black and
Speaker 2: Business Program, it is open to all individuals who are
Speaker 2: entrepreneurs that are growth oriented and solopreneurs looking to become entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2: And so there's a wide spectrum of individuals that can
Speaker 2: apply for that program and that can be a part
Speaker 2: of that program. One two. It's really not about DII
Speaker 2: or anything of that nature. It's about who are the
Speaker 2: growth engines. And if you look at who the growth
Speaker 2: engines are in the US economy, and I would argue,
Speaker 2: in the global economy, we know it's small business, it's entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2: So that program is about feeding those small businesses with
Speaker 2: the capital, the know how, the network in order to grow.
Speaker 2: And here's a couple of things I would underscore when
Speaker 2: you look at the data. If you're able to close
Speaker 2: the earningscap for black women in the United States, you're
Speaker 2: able to increase US GDP by anywhere from three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty to four hundred and fifty billion dollars. You're
Speaker 2: able to create one point three to one point seven
Speaker 2: million jobs. Those aren't jobs for black individuals. Those are
Speaker 2: just jobs in the US economy for whomever chooses to
Speaker 2: take those jobs. And so if you look at the
Speaker 2: overall impact, the blast radius of these types of programs
Speaker 2: catches a very very wide net of individuals that contributes
Speaker 2: to jobs and economic growth.
Speaker 1: And do you think that that economic case then shields
Speaker 1: the organization from criticism if that comes. And that's the
Speaker 1: sense that we're getting from many people who have backed
Speaker 1: Donald Trump of being against ESGDI programs or initiatives.
Speaker 2: I think it does a couple of things. One is,
Speaker 2: I think looking at the eligibility criteria of the programs
Speaker 2: are particularly important. And obviously everything that we do is
Speaker 2: in compliance with laws and regulations, and so I think
Speaker 2: that's one insulator, if you will. But I also think
Speaker 2: that larger economic case is a really important one. We've
Speaker 2: underscored that in our Black Womenomics report, and so yes,
Speaker 2: I think that that trifecta of those things I think
Speaker 2: is particularly important.
Speaker 3: What do you think the young people and the analysts
Speaker 3: who are going to be taking part in the event
Speaker 3: today are going to be looking to do with the money,
Speaker 3: And also how did they actually win that two hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty thousand dollars. I mean, it's interesting that they
Speaker 3: get to pick, you know, what they're going to put
Speaker 3: that money towards. How do they get it? And why
Speaker 3: did you choose to do this kind of a competition.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a great question, Caroline, because if you
Speaker 2: were to look at most corporations, decisions around impact and
Speaker 2: philanthropy are reserved for those in the C suite. And
Speaker 2: what we've done with this program is we've really democratized
Speaker 2: access to those dollars. So we've said we're going to
Speaker 2: put that decision making in the hands of our junior
Speaker 2: talent at the firm and have them drive the bus,
Speaker 2: have them one identify organizations, have them make a pitch,
Speaker 2: and the pitch today is to our CEO, David Solomon
Speaker 2: and other senior leaders Richard not head of our office
Speaker 2: here in the UK, that we'll be making the decision.
Speaker 2: So it is literally a competition on stage where they
Speaker 2: are battling for better the for the for impacts across
Speaker 2: the world and some phenomenal organizations that they've chosen and
Speaker 2: frankly orgs that we don't always know about. And so
Speaker 2: you're getting this pool of talent really surfacing phenomenal organizations
Speaker 2: doing great work around the UK, but more globally as well.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us a bit about some of those
Speaker 1: organizations that the analysts are pitching to be able to
Speaker 1: night this money.
Speaker 2: To sure I want to highlight the UK team in particular,
Speaker 2: they're pitching for an organization called screen Share. It's an
Speaker 2: all female team and screen Share addresses the issue of
Speaker 2: digital exclusion. These are individuals who don't have a device,
Speaker 2: who don't have internet access. We know in the UK
Speaker 2: approximately eleven point nine individuals are in this state where
Speaker 2: they are just not connected. So what's Screen and Share
Speaker 2: does is they provide devices, refurbaged devices to these individuals
Speaker 2: with prepaid internet access so they're able to then really
Speaker 2: access job listings, information, education and for the most part
Speaker 2: they target asylum seekers and refugees.
Speaker 3: Okay, I think that sounds yeah, but really nice to
Speaker 3: highlight that to our London audience. Well worth it in
Speaker 3: terms just of the I suppose what you're hoping to
Speaker 3: build on this long term for Golden Size and the
Speaker 3: Golden six Foundation. What do you think that you hope
Speaker 3: this is going to twigger in those teams that are gonna,
Speaker 3: you know, face the CEO frankly with a pitch, having
Speaker 3: to impress the CEO. What do you hope will be
Speaker 3: developed from this program?
Speaker 2: Three things I would say. One is we want to
Speaker 2: make sure that we're cultivating leaders at the firm and
Speaker 2: so this is a chance for them to sharpen their skills. Two,
Speaker 2: we want to make sure that senior leaders are the
Speaker 2: firm are getting access down the pipeline to our analysts.
Speaker 2: So this is a chance for the analyst to really
Speaker 2: you know, you're one year at Goldman Sachs and you're
Speaker 2: getting a chance to be in front of the CEO
Speaker 2: and the entire leadership team. So they get to interact
Speaker 2: with our most senior leadership. Our senior leadership gets interact
Speaker 2: with them. And then it's about the organizations. It's about
Speaker 2: the hundreds of thousands of dollars that these organizations will
Speaker 2: receive and the impact that it will have on the
Speaker 2: communitating in general. So it's that sort of combination of
Speaker 2: things that cocktail that I think is particularly important to us.
Speaker 2: What's interesting to note is that when we look at
Speaker 2: the data of our analysts who've participated in the program,
Speaker 2: we see that ninety six percent of them say that
Speaker 2: it's improved their leadership and strategic development skills, it's improved
Speaker 2: their communication and frankly, their connectivity with the organization.
Speaker 3: Okay, I think that's great. The other UK issue, though,
Speaker 3: is we've got mandatory gender pay gap reporting in the UK.
Speaker 3: There's a debate about whether that should be extended to
Speaker 3: ethnic pay gap reporting. Also some debate around that issue.
Speaker 3: It does seem to be that with the us where
Speaker 3: it is now, the flow may be very much against that.
Speaker 3: Are you in favor of ethnicity pay gap reporting? You know?
Speaker 2: It's Here's what I would say. I would highlight our
Speaker 2: partner class that was just announced last week. We had
Speaker 2: twenty six percent of the ninety five new partners are women.
Speaker 2: It's the largest number of women promoted to a partnership
Speaker 2: in Goldman Zac's history, almost twenty seven percent of that class.
Speaker 2: I'm actually the global sponsor of the Women's network at
Speaker 2: the firm, and so as I think about sort of
Speaker 2: the efforts that we've undertaken, I think we've made strong
Speaker 2: strides in growing our pipeline and our investment there. Obviously,
Speaker 2: we think that there's more work to do, but I'd
Speaker 2: really focus there because that's about what an organization's doing
Speaker 2: in a very tang way to increase their pipeline and
Speaker 2: cultivate that next generation of leaders.
Speaker 1: Okay Asa, great to have you with us in studio.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning. That's
Speaker 1: Sosai Pompey, Global head of Corporate Engagement and Presents of
Speaker 1: Goldman Sachs Foundation.