(Bloomberg) --Stephanie Cohen, a veteran
Cohen, who had gone on leave in 2023, elected not to return and will join software company Cloudflare Inc. as its chief strategy officer. She was the only woman in charge of one of the bank's primary units, but it was one described internally as a bad bank that
Her exit adds to the dwindling ranks of senior women at the firm as Chief Executive Officer David Solomon has failed to make good on his pledge when he took over in 2018 of correcting the lack of women in the firm's top ranks.
Stephanie Cohen has been at Goldman Sachs for more than 23 years. She started as an analyst in 1999 and has held a series of leadership positions in mergers and acquisitions. In January 2021, she was appointed global co-head of consumer and wealth management.
Cohen, who had charted a rapid rise at the firm, was saddled with its ill-fated foray into consumer banking, and in 2022 was given sole charge of a newly carved out division called Platform Solutions that was made up of its consumer-credit partnerships and other pieces of its expansion away from investment management and Wall Street.
That business racked up billions in losses, and what was meant to be Solomon's signature pivot into new lines of business turned into a costly bill that took away from the strength of the bank's business elsewhere.
Cohen had been at the bank for about 25 years and was also a member of its management committee. When she stepped away from her duties, senior executives at the bank said it was meant to pave the way for her exit even as a bank spokesmen said it would inaccurate to say she wouldn't be returning to
"We're honored that she'll be joining us as our first-ever chief strategy officer," Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said. "I look forward to working with Stephanie, and welcoming her to the team in our pursuit of building the next iconic tech company."
Cohen's new position was first reported earlier Monday by the Wall Street Journal.
