Goldman Sachs names Akila Raman global head of private, alternatives capital markets

Goldman Sachs has put Akila Raman in one of its most strategically loaded jobs, naming her global head of private, alternatives capital markets as the firm keeps pushing deeper into private capital and structured financing.

The role sits inside Goldman’s Capital Solutions Group, the business the firm created on Jan. 13, 2025 to combine financing, origination, structuring and risk management across public and private markets. For Goldman bankers, product specialists and structurers, that matters because it concentrates leadership around mandates that can still generate activity when conventional underwriting slows and client demand shifts toward private credit, private equity and hybrid financing structures.

Raman’s elevation is also a signal about the kind of internal career path Goldman is rewarding. She joined the firm in 2004, became a managing director in 2015 and a partner in 2018. Most recently, she served as chief commercial and strategy officer of transaction banking, a business that supports corporate treasurers and payment executives with cash concentration, electronic payments and foreign exchange needs. That background suggests Goldman wants senior leaders who can move across silos and connect treasury relationships, capital markets execution and alternatives distribution, not just run a single product desk.

The appointment also broadens Michael Voris’s remit. He will add Americas head of equity derivatives while continuing to co-head equity capital markets in the region, another sign that Goldman is keeping senior coverage tight in businesses that touch client financing, hedging and capital raising.

The timing fits the firm’s broader strategic direction. Goldman’s 2025 annual report said net revenues rose 9% to $58.3 billion, earnings per share increased 27% to $51.32 and return on equity improved to 15.0%. The annual report also framed Goldman’s strategy around the convergence of public and private markets, while the Capital Solutions page says the firm operates at the “fulcrum” of that convergence. Goldman Sachs Asset Management said its private markets platform had about $3.5 trillion in assets under supervision globally as of Sept. 30, 2025, underscoring the scale of the franchise Raman is being asked to help knit together.

The push comes as private credit continues to draw money even as investors scrutinize redemptions and opaque portfolios. That backdrop helps explain why Goldman is leaning further into the business rather than treating it as a side bet. For employees, the message is blunt: the careers and revenue pools rising fastest are increasingly tied to alternatives, structured finance and the cross-firm plumbing that makes complex deals possible.