Now all sectors are adjusting to what a Donald Trump presidency will mean for them. We want to have a conversation next about what it could mean for philanthropy. This is Goldman Sacks is holding its investment competition today, where it's analysts around the world get to pitch for a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars prize tonight to a charity of their choice. We have Asahi Pompey with us in studio, whose global head of Corporate Engagement and President
of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. Good morning, Sah. He lovely to have you with us in studio. I do wonder what the election results, what that means for how you're thinking about next year. A lot of the policies espoused by the incoming president would be perhaps rolling back areas of government where perhaps philanthropy could be stepping in. What are you thinking about in terms of what could change next year?
Look, I'd like to start off by just saying that, you know, I echo the words of our CEO, David Solomon in congratulating President elect Trump on his victory, and we look forward to working with the new administration on what we hope will be strong policies for economic growth. I think, like everybody else, we're going to be sort of watching what the impact will be on markets and policies so we can best serve our clients. As I think about the philanthropic landscape, I'd say a couple of things.
One is, as we think about cultivating talent, we think about what that talent feels about the impact of Goldman, Sachs and Frankly companies where they work in communities. We know that seventy five percent of gen Z and millennials say that an organization's community engagement their social impact is
absolutely critical to where they choose to work. Secondly, we know that the overall job satisfaction, eighty six percent of gen Z say that their sense of purpose, whether they have a sense of purpose at work, increases not only their job satisfaction but their personal well being. So as you think about that backdrop of any company, you have to make sure that you're engaged in activities that's going
to feed that. And one of the great things that we're doing today is that we're have this competition of our analysts and they'll be able to have their hands on millions of philanthropic dollars and where those dollars go. And this is the ninth year of the competition.
Yeah, it sounds really interesting. I want to get onto that in just a minute, but just a further kind of follow up question, given the importance of the Trump White House, you know, Goldman Sachs is one Million Black Women Initiative, the Black and Business Education Program, and a raft of other Golden Sachs and Golden Sachs Foundation programs. They are putting literally billions of dollars over many, many
years into addressing racial and gender inequality, for example. Do you lean into that given that the next four years is going to be a very conservative administration, how do you think about it?
I mean, when we launched our one Million Black Women Initiative, it's two things. It's ten billion of investment capital and one hundred million of philanthropic capital. What's important to note, I think is one, in terms of our Black and Business Program, it is open to all individuals who are entrepreneurs that are growth oriented and solopreneurs looking to become entrepreneurs. And so there's a wide spectrum of individuals that can apply for that program and that can be a part
of that program. One two. It's really not about DII or anything of that nature. It's about who are the growth engines. And if you look at who the growth engines are in the US economy, and I would argue, in the global economy, we know it's small business, it's entrepreneurs. So that program is about feeding those small businesses with the capital, the know how, the network in order to grow. And here's a couple of things I would underscore when
you look at the data. If you're able to close the earningscap for black women in the United States, you're able to increase US GDP by anywhere from three hundred and fifty to four hundred and fifty billion dollars. You're able to create one point three to one point seven million jobs. Those aren't jobs for black individuals. Those are just jobs in the US economy for whomever chooses to
take those jobs. And so if you look at the overall impact, the blast radius of these types of programs catches a very very wide net of individuals that contributes to jobs and economic growth.
And do you think that that economic case then shields the organization from criticism if that comes. And that's the sense that we're getting from many people who have backed Donald Trump of being against ESGDI programs or initiatives.
I think it does a couple of things. One is, I think looking at the eligibility criteria of the programs are particularly important. And obviously everything that we do is in compliance with laws and regulations, and so I think that's one insulator, if you will. But I also think that larger economic case is a really important one. We've underscored that in our Black Womenomics report, and so yes, I think that that trifecta of those things I think is particularly important.
What do you think the young people and the analysts who are going to be taking part in the event today are going to be looking to do with the money, And also how did they actually win that two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I mean, it's interesting that they get to pick, you know, what they're going to put that money towards. How do they get it? And why did you choose to do this kind of a competition.
You know, it's a great question, Caroline, because if you were to look at most corporations, decisions around impact and philanthropy are reserved for those in the C suite. And what we've done with this program is we've really democratized
access to those dollars. So we've said we're going to put that decision making in the hands of our junior talent at the firm and have them drive the bus, have them one identify organizations, have them make a pitch, and the pitch today is to our CEO, David Solomon and other senior leaders Richard not head of our office here in the UK, that we'll be making the decision.
So it is literally a competition on stage where they are battling for better the for the for impacts across the world and some phenomenal organizations that they've chosen and frankly orgs that we don't always know about. And so you're getting this pool of talent really surfacing phenomenal organizations doing great work around the UK, but more globally as well.
Can you tell us a bit about some of those organizations that the analysts are pitching to be able to night this money.
To sure I want to highlight the UK team in particular, they're pitching for an organization called screen Share. It's an all female team and screen Share addresses the issue of digital exclusion. These are individuals who don't have a device, who don't have internet access. We know in the UK approximately eleven point nine individuals are in this state where
they are just not connected. So what's Screen and Share does is they provide devices, refurbaged devices to these individuals with prepaid internet access so they're able to then really access job listings, information, education and for the most part they target asylum seekers and refugees.
Okay, I think that sounds yeah, but really nice to highlight that to our London audience. Well worth it in terms just of the I suppose what you're hoping to build on this long term for Golden Size and the Golden six Foundation. What do you think that you hope this is going to twigger in those teams that are gonna, you know, face the CEO frankly with a pitch, having to impress the CEO. What do you hope will be developed from this program?
Three things I would say. One is we want to make sure that we're cultivating leaders at the firm and so this is a chance for them to sharpen their skills. Two, we want to make sure that senior leaders are the firm are getting access down the pipeline to our analysts. So this is a chance for the analyst to really you know, you're one year at Goldman Sachs and you're getting a chance to be in front of the CEO and the entire leadership team. So they get to interact
with our most senior leadership. Our senior leadership gets interact with them. And then it's about the organizations. It's about the hundreds of thousands of dollars that these organizations will receive and the impact that it will have on the communitating in general. So it's that sort of combination of things that cocktail that I think is particularly important to us.
What's interesting to note is that when we look at the data of our analysts who've participated in the program, we see that ninety six percent of them say that it's improved their leadership and strategic development skills, it's improved their communication and frankly, their connectivity with the organization.
Okay, I think that's great. The other UK issue, though, is we've got mandatory gender pay gap reporting in the UK. There's a debate about whether that should be extended to ethnic pay gap reporting. Also some debate around that issue. It does seem to be that with the us where it is now, the flow may be very much against that. Are you in favor of ethnicity pay gap reporting? You know?
It's Here's what I would say. I would highlight our partner class that was just announced last week. We had twenty six percent of the ninety five new partners are women. It's the largest number of women promoted to a partnership in Goldman Zac's history, almost twenty seven percent of that class. I'm actually the global sponsor of the Women's network at the firm, and so as I think about sort of the efforts that we've undertaken, I think we've made strong
strides in growing our pipeline and our investment there. Obviously, we think that there's more work to do, but I'd really focus there because that's about what an organization's doing in a very tang way to increase their pipeline and cultivate that next generation of leaders.
Okay Asa, great to have you with us in studio. Thank you so much for your time this morning. That's Sosai Pompey, Global head of Corporate Engagement and Presents of Goldman Sachs Foundation.