Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon flew to Paris after ‘banning’ staff from Olympics
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon jetted off to Paris this week ahead of the Olympic Games — just three months after effectively banning his own employees from flying to the sporting festivities on the company dime, The Post has learned.
Open source flight records show that the company’s private luxury jet — a Gulfstream G650ER, which carries a $66 million price tag bought new — took off from New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport late Wednesday.
“Air Force Sol,” which can seat up to 16 passengers comfortably in cream leather seats, touched down at Paris’ uber-exclusive Le Bourget airport just over seven hours later on Thursday morning, according to the flight records published on the ADS-B Exchange website.
“Yeah he’s going to Paris. Hypocrisy at its finest,” one Goldman banker fumed last week. “And no doubt he’ll be using one of the company jets.”
In addition to a series of “client meetings,” Solomon’s schedule included a lunch hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and prepped by award-winning chef Fabrice Desvignes, with the menu and wine list shrouded in secrecy.
The Wall Street titan was also invited to a posh party for the rich and famous co-hosted by Bernard Arnault, the billionaire chairman of luxury giant LVMH.
The sometime house DJ will also be among the VIP guests at Friday’s opening ceremony in central Paris.
Solomon’s trip looks set to irk Goldman’s rank and file after higher-ups ordered them in April not to wine and dine clients at the Paris Games without prior approval from the firm’s bean-counters.
The bank’s bosses feared meetings would be set up as an excuse to watch some of the world’s greatest athletes at the company’s expense, according to sources.
Now, some insiders say Solomon’s Paris junket could leave him vulnerable, having already felt the heat in recent years over his DJing career and extensive use of company aircraft.
“It seems like it’s one rule for David Solomon, and another rule for everyone else,” said one Wall Street source. “Maybe they should call him King Solomon.”
Tony Fratto, the chief spokesman for Goldman Sachs, defended Solomon’s sojourn and shot down complaints about a double standard.
“That’s ridiculous. Everything we’re doing here is with clients and our growing team in the country,” Fratto told The Post on Friday.
Two sources said Solomon, 62, got invited by Macron to lunch at the Elysee, the French presidential palace, on Thursday to hobnob with fellow corporate bosses including Tesla supremo Elon Musk, Alibaba’s Joe Tsai, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky.
He then headed over to the swanky Louis Vuitton-Comcast NBCUniversal “Prelude” party that evening at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, a Frank Gehry-designed art gallery in the west of the city, the insiders added.
Hosts included not only Arnault but Pharrell Williams (above left), as well as other celebrity guests such as actress Charlize Theron, tennis legend Serena Williams (above right) and French TV star Omar Sy.
Solomon is also set to attend a number of sporting events where he will be hosting some of the firm’s clients, and a corporate shindig with a group of Olympic gold medal winners.
“Just like most of the other Fortune 100 CEOs, he’s in Paris meeting with clients and our local employees,” Fratto said.
The bank CEO was expected to stay at a luxury hotel inside the VIP security perimeter that has been set up for the opening ceremony, which is expected to have a global audience of 1 billion.
Multiple sources told The Post he had booked a room at the Four Seasons hotel called George V — the iconic, 244-room resort just a short walk from Goldman’s office, just off the Champs-Élysées.
Rooms at George V start at $2,500 a night, many of them with private balconies that look over famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides. The cheapest suite goes for $5,300, while its priciest is $27,000 a night.
Built in 1928, the property, whose past guests include Bill Gates, Taylor Swift’s squeeze and NFL star Travis Kelce and the late Queen Elizabeth II, has three Michelin-starred restaurants on site.
Fratto denied that Solomon had ever booked a room at George V.
Company insiders told The Post that there were “dozens” of other executives in Paris to host clients and stressed it was common for the top bosses to attend the Olympics.
They included Goldman president John Waldron; Dan Dees, co-head of global investment banking, and Richard Gnodde, CEO of Goldman Sachs International, according to a source in Paris.
Solomon’s use of the bank’s aircraft has raised eyebrows in the past. He came under fire in 2022 for flying to Chicago from Japan to appear for a DJ set at the Lollapalooza music festival.
An expose by Business Insider last year revealed that the G650ER is Solomon’s aircraft of choice, with a smaller G280 Goldman jet being largely used by chief operating officer John Waldron.
Popular with celebrities and top executives, America’s uber-rich — such as Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Kim Kardashian — all own one of the gas-guzzling G650ER jets.
In Goldman’s last proxy statement, published in April, the company insisted that the 62-year-old is not breaking any rules.
The bank said Solomon “is expected to use our corporate aircraft, including for personal travel, for security reasons, as well as to maximize the efficiency of his travel time and his availability for firm business.”
Dr. Stephen M. Davis, a senior fellow at the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance, said such extravagant jet-setting represents “a classic red flag of CEO greed, often at shareholders’ expense.”
Charles Elson, founding director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, added: “I don’t think anyone would recognize who David Solomon is if he was walking down the street. The argument the board is making is a weak one. Given that he is making millions of dollars a year, he could charter an aircraft on his own.”
Solomon was awarded $31 million in compensation for 2023, up 24% from the $25 million he made in 2022, according to the bank’s own investor reports.
