One of the senior deal makers at Goldman Sachs is preparing to retire, according to people briefed on the matter, joining a growing number of high-level executives who have left the Wall Street bank in recent months.
The retirement of George N. Mattson, a partner and a head of Goldman’s global industrials group, may be announced as soon as Monday, these people said. He is regarded as a top producer, with a client list that includes General Motors, General Electric, the United Parcel Service and Caterpillar.
These people were not authorized to speak publicly about internal firm matters. A Goldman spokesman declined to comment.
An unusually high number of executives have retired from one of the most-envied clubs within investment banking: Goldman’s partnership. Just a small fraction of the firm’s employees — now about 450 — belong to the group, having climbed the ranks after emerging as rainmakers.
But Goldman and its rivals are confronting a bleaker economic environment that has eroded earnings. The firm earned $978 million in its fourth quarter last year, a decline of nearly 56 percent from the period a year earlier.
While those results beat analyst expectations, they were bolstered in part by a round of belt-tightening that included cutting compensation and even the use of car services.
The new reality on Wall Street has also put pressure on Goldman’s partnership, which is expected to shrink along with the size of the firm. More than 30 partners have left since October. Over the last three months alone, the co-heads of Goldman’s prominent securities division have departed, as has the co-head of its investment management division.
Within Goldman, Mr. Mattson has cemented a reputation as a senior client-relationship banker. He has worked on a number of prominent deals over the last decade, including G.M.’s initial public offering in 2010, the breakup of Tyco International and the $16.4 billion purchase of the Goodrich Corporation by United Technologies.
Goldman Sachs was the busiest adviser on industrial deals announced last year, having worked on nearly 37 transactions worth about $75 billion, according to data from Thomson Reuters. That gave Goldman 31 percent of the market, well ahead of its nearest competitor, Credit Suisse of Switzerland.
Mr. Mattson also held several top positions within the firm’s investment banking unit, sitting on both its operating and its client and business standards committees. The business standards committee was formed last year as part of a 39-step plan aimed at addressing criticism that Goldman had put its own interests ahead of the interests of its clients.
Mr. Mattson also served as a global head of recruiting for the investment banking division.
A graduate of Duke University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Mattson joined Goldman Sachs in 1994. He was named a managing director in 2001 and a partner the next year.