It’s Time to Sack Goldman Sachs’ DEI Initiatives, Shareholders Insist

Washington, D.C. — At today’s Goldman Sachs annual shareholder meeting, a representative of the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project (FEP) will present a proposal requesting that the Board of Directors take a closer look at the risks Goldman faces by refusing to dump its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

FEP’s supporting statement provides several examples of Goldman engaging in “arguably unethical and illegal racial discrimination,” including “allocating mentorship resources on the basis of race; establishing race-based employee ‘Inclusion Networks;’ committing ‘$10 billion in direct investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic support’ on the basis of race and sex; expressly ‘aiming to achieve, by 2025, representation in our vice president population of… 7 percent Black professionals in the Americas and the UK;’ [and] announcing that ‘we would only take a company public in the US or Western Europe if it had… two diverse board members.'”

When Goldman Sachs released its annual filing in February — after receiving FEP’s proposal and after the election of President Trump — the company had noticeably dropped its entire “diversity and inclusion” section from the filing, with CEO David Solomon noting: “We have made certain adjustments to reflect developments in the law in the U.S.”

Yet Goldman’s Board is still opposing FEP’s proposal, arguing that while they “are aware that the law in this area is evolving,” they’ve already evaluated all of their diversity policies and have made the changes they deem appropriate. FEP argues more work is to be done, and urges shareholders to vote YES on Item 6 to require that the Goldman Board oversee an official audit of the “legal and reputational risks stemming from its race-based initiatives.”

Ambassadors with the National Center’s Project 21 black leadership network recently elaborated on the harmful effects of DEI in “Rolling Back DEI Rewards Black Americans Instead of Crippling Them.” Relatedly, FEP Executive Director Stefan Padfield explained in a recent RealClearMarkets commentary why stakeholders should remain very skeptical of pronouncements that shareholders support DEI.

In its Proxy Navigator shareholder proxy voting guide, FEP explains why it also recommends the following votes for today’s Goldman Sachs meeting:

• Board of directors: VOTE ABSTAIN FOR THE ENTIRE BOARD
  
• Executive compensation: AGAINST
  
• Management proposal: Approval of The Goldman Sachs Amended and Restated Stock Incentive Plan (2025): AGAINST
  
• Ratification of auditors: ABSTAIN
  
• Shareholder Proposal Regarding DEI Goals in Executive Pay Incentives: FOR
  
• Shareholder Proposal Regarding Racial Discrimination Audit: FOR
  
• Shareholder Proposal Regarding Disclosure of Energy Supply Financing Ratio: AGAINST

The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than four percent from foundations and less than two percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 60,000 active recent contributors.

FEP, the original and premier opponent of the woke takeover of American corporate life, aims to push corporations to respect their fiduciary obligations and to stay out of political and social engineering. More information about this proposal can be found in FEP’s mobile and web app, ProxyNavigator.

Contributions are tax-deductible and may be earmarked for the Free Enterprise Project. Sign up for email updates at https://nationalcenter.org/subscribe/.

Follow us on Twitter at @FreeEntProject and @NationalCenter for general announcements. To be alerted to upcoming media appearances by National Center staff, follow our media appearances Twitter account at @NCPPRMedia.