David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, has been spotted jetting off to Paris this week, just ahead of the Olympic Games.
This move comes only three months after he effectively prohibited his employees from attending the games on the company's expense.
The Wall Street titan's private luxury jet, a Gulfstream G650ER, was seen departing from New Jersey's Teterboro airport late Wednesday, according to open source flight records.
As reported by The New York Post, the luxury jet, nicknamed 'Air Force Sol,' landed at Paris' exclusive Le Bourget airport on Thursday morning, after a flight of just over seven hours. "Yeah he's going to Paris. Hypocrisy at its finest," a Goldman banker reportedly commented last week. "And no doubt he'll be using one of the company jets."
Solomon's itinerary in Paris includes a series of "client meetings," a lunch hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, and an invitation to a lavish party for the wealthy and famous, co-hosted by Bernard Arnault, the billionaire chairman of luxury giant LVMH. The Goldman Sachs CEO is also expected to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on Friday.
This trip is likely to ruffle feathers among Goldman's employees, who were instructed in April not to entertain clients at the Paris Games without prior approval from the firm's financial controllers. The company's management was reportedly concerned that meetings would be arranged as a pretext to watch some of the world's top athletes at the company's expense.
Some insiders suggest that Solomon's Parisian excursion could leave him exposed, given the criticism he has faced in recent years over his DJing career and extensive use of company aircraft. "It seems like it's one rule for David Solomon, and another rule for everyone else," said one Wall Street source.
However, Tony Fratto, the chief spokesman for Goldman Sachs, defended Solomon's trip and dismissed complaints about a double standard. "That's ridiculous. Everything we're doing here is with clients and our growing team in the country," Fratto stated.
Solomon, 62, was invited by President Macron to lunch at the Elysee, the French presidential palace, on Thursday. He was in the company of fellow corporate leaders including Tesla's Elon Musk, Alibaba's Joe Tsai, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, and AirBnB's Brian Chesky. Solomon then attended the Louis Vuitton-Comcast NBCUniversal 'Prelude' party at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, a Frank Gehry-designed art gallery in the west of the city.
The Goldman Sachs CEO is also scheduled to attend several sporting events where he will be hosting some of the firm's clients, and a corporate event with a group of Olympic gold medal winners. Solomon is expected to stay at the luxury Four Seasons hotel, the George V, for five nights. The iconic resort is conveniently located near Goldman's office, just off the Champs-lyses.
Solomon's use of the bank's aircraft has been a subject of controversy in the past. He was criticized in 2022 for flying to Chicago from Japan to perform a DJ set at the Lollapalooza music festival. However, in Goldman's last proxy statement, published in April, the company insisted that Solomon is not breaking any rules. The bank stated that Solomon "is expected to use our corporate aircraft, including for personal travel, for security reasons, as well as to maximize the efficiency of his travel time and his availability for firm business."
Despite this, some experts argue that such extravagant travel habits represent "a classic red flag of CEO greed, often at shareholders' expense," according to Dr. Stephen M. Davis, a senior fellow at the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance. Charles Elson, the founding director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, added: "I dont think anyone would recognize who David Solomon is if he was walking down the street. The argument the board is making is a weak one. Given that he is making millions of dollars a year, he could charter an aircraft on his own."
Solomon was awarded $31 million in compensation for 2023, a 24% increase from the $25 million he made in 2022, according to the banks own investor reports. His Parisian trip, while potentially controversial among his employees, underscores the privileges and disparities that often exist within the corporate world.
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