Would you like to be a summer intern at Goldman Sachs? How about a full-time analyst? Good luck with both endeavours: Goldman only accepted 0.7% of its interns this year; analyst acceptances are likely to be similarly low.
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Given the difficulty of getting into Goldman’s junior rankings, all things being equal, the contiguous presence of two 20-somethings from the same family on the firm’s training program is highly unlikely. It has a one in 20,000 chance of occurring.
And yet occur it has. Writing on LinkedIn, Chip Lemkau, a managing director in Goldman’s private wealth management division, said two of his family members – Mack and Sadie Lemkau are working for the firm this summer. Mack, who is a finance student at Babson College, is an analyst on the New York technology, media and telecoms (TMT) team. Sadie, who is a fashion student at the Southern Methodist University, is a summer intern on the marketing and communications team.
Chip, Mack and Sadie are not the only Lemkaus in Goldman’s stable. Greg Lemkau was Goldman’s head of investment banking before he left in 2020 and became CEO of BDT & MSD Partners, a firm diversifying the Dell family fortune. The Lemkaus appear related: Mack previously interned at BDT & MSD. Writing on Chip Lemkau’s post, Greg suggested it was the start of a new Goldman family dynasty.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Lemkau’s post was observed by individuals on the Wall Street Oasis forum who suggested it seemed nepotistic. The Lemkaus are not the only family with multiple members at Goldman Sachs: former CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s sons also began their careers there.
It’s understood that all applicants to Goldman’s programs must go through the same application rigorous process. The firm has been known to select relatives of clients as well as the offspring of staff: last year’s intern class included the daughters of Rupert Murdoch, one of whom is returning as an analyst this summer. In 2021, it also emerged that one of the authors of a report complaining of excessive work among juniors in Goldman’s TMT team was the son of the vice chairman of TPG Capital, another Goldman client.
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