Goldman Sachs rejected John Waldron over a failed math test — now he's the top candidate to be its next CEO

In another plot twist, it was at Bear Stearns that Waldron formed a close friendship with David Solomon, the now-CEO of Goldman Sachs that Waldron may very well replace.

One of these days

After learning the ropes of running a Wall Street firm, Waldron joined Goldman Sachs in 2000 in the investment banking services division. He steadily rose to higher and higher positions over the decades, landing the role of president and COO in 2018 — the same year his colleague Solomon took over as CEO.

Like Solomon, Waldron made headlines in 2025 when Goldman Sachs’s board approved $80 million pay packages for each executive to keep them on for five years. Bloomberg reported that the stock-based compensation in that plan now exceeds $120 million.

Sources close to Goldman Sachs told The Wall Street Journal that Waldron could enter the CEO position in either 2027 or 2028, with Solomon likely moving to an executive chair post.

Moneywise reached out to Goldman Sachs for further comment. Company spokesperson Tony Fratto responded.

“Of course the Board regularly discusses succession, as we disclose in our filings, but there is no definitive timeline for succession at Goldman Sachs,” he wrote. “Any assertions about timing are just speculation.”

Another brick in the Wall

​Another unlikely feature of John Waldron’s ascent on Wall Street is that he doesn’t have a formal education in finance. Waldron holds a BA in English from Middlebury College.

By his own admission, Waldron said he was “more of an English kid than a finance kid” in school, although he did minor in economics.​

Other Wall Street leaders seem to sense that Waldron might be out of place. For example, Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo told Fortune that John Waldron “just presents as one of the most non-Wall Street people that I’ve met, even though he heads the epitome of a Wall Street firm.”

Speaking at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Waldron said he “thought [he] was going to be a writer” after college.

His career ideas took a U-turn when he went to the University of Chicago for a business-focused opportunity. At a summer program, Waldron said he “learned a lot about finance and entry-level opportunities in financial services,” which then led him to focus his job hunt in the same sector.​

He admittedly wasn’t so sure he would stick with a financial career for his entire life, saying, “I thought it would be an interesting place to learn finance and also be a good baseline for whatever I would do in my career. I had absolutely no intention of staying beyond the first few years.”