REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION
September 9, 2024
Whitney Watson
Global Co-head and Co-chief Investment Officer of Fixed Income,
Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Being a 6-year-old on a balance beam in front of judges builds skills that come in handy when you’re co-head of a
Goldman Sachs Asset Management division that manages $1.6 trillion in assets.
“Nerves take on a different meaning throughout the course of your life,” said Whitney Watson, co-head and co-CIO of fixed income and liquidity solutions at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “There’s just a level
of toughness that comes from being an athlete, any type of athlete, it doesn’t have to be a college athlete.”
But Watson was indeed a college athlete, having been on the gymnastics team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a university from which she received both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in 2005.
She also knows how to pivot. Watson, who has spent her entire career at Goldman Sachs, was trading mortgages in 2008 when a mentor of hers who had run the mortgage department for years was tapped during the financial crisis to become the chief risk officer of the entire asset management group. He reached out to Watson and asked her to join him.
“And so then, without much planning, my career shifted into asset management,” she said.
While the decision was ultimately a good one, she had doubts at first.
“I went from eight computer screens to a cubicle in the corner, so I wasn’t really sure about my decision that I had made,” Watson said. “But it ultimately worked out.”
Watson said she enjoys working with clients to deliver long-term investment returns and thinking about customized solutions for clients.
“My mom is a retired teacher, so the concept of managing a public pension, it’s … very near and dear to my heart,” she said.
— KATHIE O’DONNELL
.Reprinted with permission from Pensions & Investments. © 2024 Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.
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