9Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. hired Raj Mahajan, the former head of high-frequency trader Allston Trading, as a partner to oversee its dark pool and algorithmic-trading businesses.
Mahajan will serve as head of equities electronic execution services, based in New York and reporting to Adam Korn and Ronnie Morgan, according to an employee memo obtained by Bloomberg News. Michael DuVally, a Goldman Sachs spokesman, confirmed the contents of the memo. {IMGCAP(1)]
Mahajan is returning to the firm where he began his career as it struggles to define its role in Americas computer- accelerated stock market. While Goldman Sachs runs the nations sixth-largest dark pool and was a pioneer in algorithmic execution, Gary Cohn, the firms president, said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed column last year that electronic trading had the potential to increase instability.
Raj brings extensive experience in electronic trading, market structure, technology and entrepreneurship to our rapidly growing electronic execution franchise, the memo said. He will be responsible for delivering innovative electronic execution solutions to global clients across equity products worldwide.
Partner is the highest rank at Goldman Sachs and a nod to its history as a private partnership before going public in 1999. The firm hosts partners-only meetings during the year and has off-site events and programs meant to help partners train junior workers.
Allstons CEO
Mahajan started his career at Goldman Sachs in 1996, working as an analyst in the firms commodities business. In 2000, he co-founded and became president of Kiodex Inc., a risk platform designed for commodity hedgers and traders. That firm was bought by SunGard Data Systems Inc. in 2004, and at SunGard he served as president of global trading.
Allston appointed Mahajan as CEO in September 2012, a move that saw him leave New York for Chicago. Carlton Jones, chairman and president of Allston, will take over as CEO, a post he previously held from 2011 to 2012, according to an internal memo.
Greg Tusar, who had been global head of electronic trading at Goldman Sachs, left the firm in the first half of 2013 and is now co-head of global execution services and platforms at KCG Holdings Inc. Tusar often represented Goldman Sachs at industry conferences and commented publicly about stock exchange and regulatory rule proposals involving equities-market structure.
The businesses that will be under Mahajan include Goldman Sachss algorithmic trading strategies and the Sigma X dark pool, which ranked sixth in the U.S., according to latest figures from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Goldman Sachs, which relies most on trading among the biggest U.S. banks, saw revenue from those operations slip to $15.2 billion last year, the lowest since 2005, as firms across Wall Street grappled with a slump in fixed-income business. The stock is down 9.4 percent this month.
