Julian Salisbury, the chief investment officer of the asset and wealth management division at Goldman Sachs, is leaving the firm to join Sixth Street, which has $65 billion in assets.
Salisbury is departing to become a partner at Sixth Street and will serve as co-CIO alongside Alan Waxman, CEO, and Joshua Easterly, co-president, Sixth Street said in a statement on Friday. He is expected to start in early 2024 and will also be a member of the executive committee. Waxman previously worked with Salisbury during his own stint at Goldman. He co-founded Sixth Street in 2009 with a group that included other former Goldman employees.
“Sixth Street’s culture is the foundation of everything we do, and Julian is a seamless fit into our firm. He has distinguished himself time and again as a superstar investor and business builder and, more importantly, as a trustworthy and reliable partner,” Waxman said in a statement.
“We first got to know each other in 2002 while working on an investment in a Swiss cable company, and since then my partners and I have cheered Julian on as he has become one of the industry’s best investors and business leaders. We are incredibly excited to be back working with him again,” added Waxman.
Salisbury, a 25-year veteran of Goldman, was previously the co-head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and global head of the merchant banking division.
Under Salisbury’s tenure, GSAM was merged with the bank’s wealth management group and grew to oversee $2.7 trillion in assets, including more than $450 billion in alternative investments, for institutions and individuals. He became part of the management committee in 2017 and also co-chaired the investment committees at Goldman across all direct private strategies including growth, real estate, private credit, private equity, and infrastructure.
Salisbury’s departure is the latest at GSAM, which has had other recent leadership changes. In February Samuel Finkelstein stepped down as the global head and CIO of fixed income and liquidity solutions and was replaced by two deputies. In May, Greg Calnon, the global head of multi-asset solutions, was named co-head of the $2.4 trillion public investing business alongside Ashish Shah.
In a statement about joining Sixth Street, Salisbury said the firm is the “exact kind of organization I would want if I were creating an investment firm from the ground up,” and praised its people, platform and philosophy.
“While leaving Goldman Sachs was a difficult decision, this was a unique opportunity to reunite with a group of people for whom I have deep, longstanding respect,” Salisbury said. “Alan and I have been colleagues and friends for more than twenty years, and I am incredibly excited to work with him, Josh, David, and Marty again as a member of the powerful investing ecosystem the Sixth Street partner group has cultivated. There really is no other firm I would have considered joining, and I am excited for all that I know we will achieve together.”
