Goldman Sachs chief of staff Russell Horwitz to leave at end of June

Russell Horwitz is stepping out of Goldman Sachs’ executive office at the end of June and into an advisory director role, a shift that matters well beyond one senior title. At 55, he will retire from his partnership after nearly two decades at the firm, removing one of David Solomon’s closest operators from the daily flow of decisions that shape how Goldman talks, reacts and manages pressure.

Horwitz has sat near the center of that machinery. Goldman says he oversees the executive office’s corporate communications, government and regulatory affairs, and corporate engagement, and that he also works closely with investor relations and marketing. For employees, that means the move is not just administrative. It changes who has direct access to the CEO’s office, who helps frame responses to regulators and outside critics, and who helps decide which issues rise quickly and which get slowed down.

The timing also invites a read on succession and internal balance. Goldman brought Horwitz back in 2023 after he left in 2020 for Citadel, during a period Bloomberg described as marked by internal bickering and dissatisfaction in the ranks. The chief of staff slot has repeatedly been used as a pressure valve inside Goldman, a place to build consensus at the top and preserve the firm’s standing in Washington. Horwitz’s departure suggests that role remains important even when the face in the seat changes.

Horwitz brings more than process management. Goldman’s bio says he previously served as co-chief operating officer of the Securities Division, and before that worked at the White House from 1995 to 1998 as special assistant to the national economic adviser and deputy director of communications research. That mix of policy, communications and trading-floor exposure has made him useful in moments when Goldman needed more than a conventional administrator.

That included the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the fallout from the 1MDB scandal in Malaysia, when senior leadership needed someone who understood both the firm’s internal politics and its external vulnerabilities. Goldman’s leadership page also lists Horwitz as a member of the Management Committee, underscoring how broadly his role reached across the firm.

His move into an advisory seat does not erase his influence, but it does change the rhythm around it. For Goldman employees trying to read the top of the house, the signal is clear: the executive office is again entering a transition, and the next person closest to Solomon will inherit a role that helps shape not just messaging, but power.