By Tatiana Bautzer
DALLAS (Reuters) – A Goldman Sachs Group Inc shareholder criticized its Chairman and CEO David Solomon on Wednesday and proposed its board appoint an independent chairman.
“The Goldman Sachs processes look anything but robust — to many of us outside observers and shareholders, they look pretty weak,” Paul Chesser, a director at the National Legal and Policy Center, said at the bank’s annual meeting on Wednesday in Dallas.
He cited gender lawsuits, junior banker burnout, and reports about Solomon’s use of the company’s private jets as reasons the Wall Street powerhouse should appoint an independent chair.
The bank urged shareholders to reject the proposal, saying in its proxy that its directors “take very seriously” their obligations to act in the best interests of the firm and its shareholders.
(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer in Dallas, additional reporting by Saeed Azhar in New York; Editing by Lananh Nguyen and Nick Zieminski)