Given that Goldman Sachs received one million job applications last year, there are clearly plenty of students who want to work there. However, there is also a small but loud cohort of students who want to dissuade them from doing so.
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This week, the London School of Economics hosted its Alternative Investment Conference (AIC), for students around the world interested in private equity, hedge funds, and asset management.
It also hosted a dozen or so protestors on the second day, who stood outside the Marriott on London’s Grosvenor Square handing out leaflets. They weren’t protesting the event itself, but the headline sponsor: Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM).
“LSE provides a revolving door between the university, investment, and fossil finance,” complained the protestors, who were seemingly from the LSE too (Just Stop Oil, a prominent and disruptive UK environmental group, told us it wasn’t behind the protest). They added that Goldman Sachs has allegedly funded over $143bn of fossil fuel activity since 2016, and $11bn of defense industry activity since 2021.
The students inside the conference seemingly didn’t care. A few suggested that the students protesting were wasting their time. However, they also admitted the concerns might be valid in the long term – but there was little indication that they felt personally responsible or concerned.
Students who intern at Goldman do seem to care about climate change, however. In its annual intern survey for 2023, 30% of Goldman Sachs interns said that climate change would have “the most pronounced global impact”; 7% believed resource scarcity would. 6% thought it would be the widening global wealth gap.
The protests come after Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon was involved in a spat last summer with students from his Alma Mater, Hamilton College, over ESG-related comments. The students alleged that Solomon laughed off climate change concerns and responsibility as he “would be dead in 30 years.” They also alleged that Solomon claimed to do more in a week to fight climate change than they would do in their entire careers.
As we reported earlier this week, ESG jobs aren’t what they used to be, they still exist (under the umbrella of sustainability, or whatever else). Barclays is growing its team of “transition finance” people – and have pledged to no longer directly finance new oil & gas projects.
Both the AIC’s organizers and Goldman Sachs decline to comment on this article.
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