Richard Gnodde

Companies House records his full name as Richard John Gnodde, his birth month as March 1960 and his nationality as Irish. In his college memoir, he described being born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa.⁠[4][5]

After earning a commerce degree at the University of Cape Town, Gnodde entered Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1983 to study law and graduated with first-class results in 1985.⁠[5]

After graduation in 1985 he joined Schroders in London as a junior investment banker, moving to Goldman Sachs in 1987 and initially focusing on European mergers and acquisitions.⁠[5]

Gnodde became a managing director in 1996, co-head of Japanese investment banking in 1997 and a partner in 1998. In 1999 he became president of Goldman Sachs Singapore and co-head of Asian investment banking, then moved to Hong Kong as president of Goldman Sachs Asia.⁠[1]

He joined Goldman Sachs’ management committee in 2003, returned to London in 2005 and became co-chief executive of GSI in 2006, subsequently serving as its chief executive.⁠[1][6]

Alongside his GSI responsibilities, Gnodde was co-head of Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking Division from 2011 to May 2017.⁠[6]

Christ’s College’s 2014 magazine lists Gnodde as elected a Lady Margaret Beaufort Fellow in 2013 and includes his autobiographical account.⁠[5]

Goldman Sachs announced Gnodde’s appointment as vice chairman in December 2016, effective January 1, 2017. Its 2019 proxy statement records that his title and role were discontinued on January 1, 2019; his later 2025 appointment was therefore not a continuous tenure from 2017.⁠[1][7]

In August 2019 Malaysian prosecutors charged 17 current or former Goldman subsidiary directors, including Gnodde, over 1MDB bond offerings; Goldman disputed the charges. On July 24, 2020, Goldman announced an agreement in principle under which Malaysia would withdraw pending charges against the bank and relevant directors, officers and employees, excluding former employees Tim Leissner and Roger Ng.⁠[8][9]

In its global settlement announcement, Goldman’s board characterized 1MDB as an institutional failure and announced a combined $31 million reduction in 2020 compensation for four serving executives, including GSI’s then chief executive. The amount was a collective reduction, not Gnodde’s individual pay cut.⁠[10]

Cambridge approved the Gnodde Goldman Sachs Fund for Neuroinformatics. The preceding proposal recorded a £3 million gift through Goldman Sachs Gives UK on behalf of Richard and Kara Gnodde to endow a neuroinformatics professorship in the Department of Psychiatry.⁠[11][12]

Goldman announced that Gnodde would become group vice chairman and that Anthony Gutman and Kunal Shah would succeed him as GSI co-chief executives. The announcement said all three would serve on the management committee.⁠[2]

City AM cited two people familiar with the decision as saying Gnodde would move from London to Milan, linking it to changes in UK non-domicile taxation. Goldman said he would pursue European growth opportunities while continuing to spend substantial time in London; the report did not establish an exact moving date.⁠[13]

A subsequent Johannesburg Stock Exchange announcement confirmed that Gnodde resigned as a director of GSI and Goldman Sachs International Bank on June 10 and ceased to be GSI chief executive that day. Gutman and Shah became co-chief executives; Companies House also records both director resignations.⁠[14][4]

Business Insider reported seven additions to Goldman’s management committee and the departures of Gnodde and John Rogers from that committee. The change concerned committee membership and did not establish that Gnodde had left the firm.⁠[15]

UCT announced that a gift from David, Richard and John Gnodde established the Alasdair Falconer Scholarship in Classics Honours, named for their nephew. Administered through the UCT UK Trust, it supports one student annually on academic merit, covering tuition, accommodation and books. Tyla Maltby was the inaugural recipient.⁠[3]

Goldman Sachs: Official website: https://www.goldmansachs.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

Schroders: Official website: https://www.schroders.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]

Christ’s College, Cambridge: Official website: https://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]

University of Cape Town Trust: Official website: https://ucttrust.org.uk/ (opens in a new window).⁠[3]