Goldman Sachs has appointed tech veterans As Business Insider has learned, John Madsen is its Chief Technology Officer.
Madsen’s appointment comes after Goldman lost its current CTO, Atte Lahtiranta, to Ken Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel, as Bloomberg first reported. Madsen, currently head of core engineering, will become CTO when Lahtiranta leaves the company. Madsen will continue to report to Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti.
“John will work with our engineers around the world to ensure we continue to build and improve unified platforms, develop shared services, and further develop a powerful, collaborative development culture across the company,” Argenti wrote in a memo to employees last week, which BI was able to view.
Madsen will continue to oversee the core engineering teams and help Argenti set the strategic technology direction for Goldman. Part of his remit will likely focus on generative AI, which, much like the rest of Wall Street, has become a focus of Goldman’s technology ambitions.
Madsen, who has worked at Goldman Sachs for 20 years, is familiar with the role of CTO. According to his LinkedIn profile, he held the title from 2017 to 2020. He has held several leadership roles in technology, including co-head of technology and chief architect of engineering.
According to the memo, he joined the firm as an associate in 2003 and became a partner in 2014.
In March, Madsen took over as head of the bank’s central engineering department following the departure of Ilya Gaysynskiy. The team is responsible for developing and maintaining the bank’s centralized technologies.
As ChatGPT-like technologies make their way across the bank, from engineering to front-office staff, Goldman’s engineering leaders will be responsible for leading a cultural and technological shift. With its ability to automate routine work, generative AI is changing the way Wall Street employees can stand out from the crowd.
Today, software developers have to think creatively and ask “why” something needs to be developed before figuring out “how” to develop it. Top Wall Street firms, including Goldman, now expect their programmers to have studied humanities such as philosophy and English. According to his LinkedIn profile, Madsen himself studied philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley and Rutgers University.
Lahtiranta leaves Goldman after five years as CTOAt Citadel, he will lead the hedge fund’s core engineering group.
“Citadel’s success has always been built on our technical expertise and ability to attract and develop exceptional talent,” said Umesh Subramanian, Citadel’s CTO and former Goldman colleague, in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming Atte as we continue to strengthen our industry-leading engineering team.”
