Goldman Sachs Group Inc is set to lose its co-head of engineering for the US bank’s securities division. According to a memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday, Konstantin Shakhnovich is retiring.
The engineering unit, which was set up in June of 2018, sits within its securities sales-and-trading division. At Goldman Sachs, the unit manages the end-to-end trading systems for the bank’s securities business. As co-head of engineering, Shakhnovich oversaw the unit alongside Raj Mahajan and Ezra Nahum, the remaining co-heads.
According to the memo, Shakhnovich will be replaced by Adam Korn, the current head of Marquee, the multinational firm’s web services platform. In addition to this new role, Korn will also be responsible for the management of systematic market making for Equities and fixed income, currency, and commodities (FICC) trading.
Specifically, the memo which was seen by Reuters on Tuesday said that Shakhnovich “led the development of a best-in-class electronic business in FICC.” He took on this challenge at a time when the industry was quickly moving toward electronic trading.
In 2016, when Shakhnovich was the global head of fixed-income electronic trading and Execution strategists, Goldman Sachs charged him with the responsibility of combining automated trading operations from different units and desks, in an initiative dubbed Systematic Market Making. This was in an attempt to improve efficiency and coordination, a report from Bloomberg said at the time.
Another professional to retire from Goldman Sachs
Shakhnovich first joined Goldman Sachs in 2001 and later became a partner in 2010. His departure comes just one week after Justin Gmelich announced his plans to retire in March of this year.
Gmelich joined Goldman Sachs back in 1998. His most recent role is the chief operating officer of FICC trading, a position he has held since 2017. Before this, he ran credit and mortgage trading. He has been a partner at the firm since 2004.
