By Saeed Azhar
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The head of healthcare investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jo Natauri, will leave the company at the end of the year to pursue other opportunities in the sector.
“We’re entering a pretty attractive period for healthcare private investing, which I think could be pretty interesting to explore,” Natauri told Reuters, without giving details about her next move.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) has invested $5 billion in healthcare assets over the last five years, she said.
Natauri, who will step down from Goldman Sachs Group’s elite partner ranks, spent 17 years at the U.S. banking group. She served in senior leadership roles in asset management and investment banking, according to an internal memo announcing her departure seen by Reuters.
“She’s poised for success, and I’ll be rooting for her,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said in a statement.
Goldman Sachs has seen a number of departures in recent months as senior executives leave or retire. While the bank may save money if highly paid staff leave, the exits have prompted concerns that Goldman is losing top talent.
A company spokesperson said however the average tenure of the bank’s partners had risen to its highest in a decade at 8.3 years last year, versus 6.2 years in 2010.
Nicole Agnew, currently global head of consumer in private equity investing at GSAM, will take on expanded leadership responsibilities to oversee healthcare investing, according to a separate memo seen by Reuters.
Jeff Bernstein and Adam Dawson will become co-heads of healthcare private equity investing. Both were promoted to managing directors in 2019.
(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Lananh Nguyen and Susan Fenton)