Goldman Sachs' ETF Business Loses Another Executive

The departure of Peter Thomspon follows a series of high-level executive changes.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Peter Thompson, the firm's head of ETFs for Europe, Middle East and Asia, is retiring, another high-profile executive change in the firm's exchange-traded fund unit that's been expanding its product line.

Last month, the New York-based firm hired JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s former head of ETFs Bryon Lake to take on a broad role across the company's asset management business. Lake's hiring followed the February departure of Ryan O'Connor, who ran all aspects of Goldman's ETF product platform, and joined rival ETF firm Global X as chief executive. Goldman's global ETF head Mark Crinieri, left earlier this year, the Financial Times reported.

Thompson rejoined Goldman Sachs Asset Management as managing director in 2018 after working at the firm between 1999 and 2009 in various roles. In the interim, Thompson was president at Source ETF from 2008 to 2016 before it was acquired by Invesco in 2017.

Goldman Sach's has established a relatively small European ETF business since arriving in 2019, issuing six funds with assets of around $670 million. In the U.S., the firm has $34.7 billion under management in 40 exchange-traded funds. Goldman Sachs has launched a handful of ETFs in the past year as well as starting a so-called accelerator aimed at helping other firms get their exchange-traded funds to market. 

Its largest fund is the $12.3 billion Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF (GSLC).

Goldman ETF Shakeup

Following Thompson’s exit, Brendan McCarthy, head of ETF specialists and capital markets, will continue to lead GSAM’s ETF efforts partnering with distribution, product, and portfolio management teams to further integrate ETFs into the firm’s broader offering.

Alyson Shupe, head of global product strategy at GSAM will continue to oversee the development, prioritization and launch of new public markets products, including ETFs globally.

“ETFs are an important part of those growth plans and we have an experienced and tenured team of leaders who will continue to focus on delivering innovative ETF solutions to meet our clients’ objectives," said a Goldman spokesperson who confirmed Thompson's retirement.

Elsewhere, GSAM unveiled a global green bond ETF in February, its first ETF launch since October 2022.

This story was originally published in etf.com sister publication ETF Stream.