As we’ve noted here often before, the financial services industry is full of people who are not neurotypical. ADHD is common on the trading floor. Autism is common in quant and technology roles. At Goldman Sachs, the population of neurodivergent people goes right to the top, and this week they held another event to share their wisdom on parenting their non-neurotypical children.
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“I’m the co-chief executive of Goldman Sachs International and the global co-head of investment banking,” proclaimed Anthony Gutman, a partner and the holder of both these titles; “More importantly, I also come from a neurodiverse family.” Rob Mullane, another Goldman partner and the co-head of private wealth for EMEA, told attendees that his children are neurodiverse. Jack McFerran, a managing director and head of equity sales for London, said he, too, has a neurodiverse family.
Neurodiversity is often hereditary. Although it wasn’t explicitly stated on Tuesday evening, the implication was that senior Goldman figures share neurodiverse traits with their children. Once, this may have been viewed as a disability. Now it’s reframed as a plus. The skills “inherent in dyslexic thinking” are “sought-after skills, and they are sought-after skills in this building,” proclaimed John Storey, Goldman’s co-head of equities distribution in banking and markets. Storey said he has been “rocked to the foundations” by his own experience of parenting neurodiverse children.
The event wasn’t just for Goldman’s senior leaders, but for Goldman’s clients and their spouses, many of whom have neurodiverse children too. When Goldman held similar events for clients last year, the response was amazing. “The really important thing is to get front office leaders to stand up and talk about being neurodiverse or parenting neurodiverse children, and to be vulnerable,” McFerran told us in January.
Speaking this week, Storey said people with dyslexia bring skills like, “creativity, problem-solving, lateral thinking, strong communication.” Dyslexic children are too often told they’re “thick and lazy”, said Kate Griggs, from the charity Made by Dyslexia, but with “adjustments and accommodation” they can thrive. Alex Partridge, founder of UniLad and LADbible, discussed his experiences as an entrepreneur with ADHD.
Professor Simon Baron Cohen, an expert on autism (and a cousin of Sacha), told Goldman’s attendees that neurodiverse traits often come in combination. Autism, dyslexia and ADHD can overlap. Autism can be a strength, said Baron Cohen: it endows people with “excellent attention to detail, an excellent memory for detail, and strong pattern recognition.”
However, neurodiverse traits can also be associated with poor mental health and parenting neurodiverse children can be a worry. “If people stand up and acknowledge it’s a bit tough, others will too,” said McFerran earlier this year. Goldman’s MDs and partners are taking the lead.
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