<p><img src="https://static3.businessinsider.com/image/6010952e6dfbe10018e0023d-1500/posnettkim.jpg" border="0" alt="Kim Posnett" data-mce-source="Goldman Sachs"></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>When she was just starting out at Goldman Sachs in 2007, Jane Dunlevie leaned on investment-banking exec Kim Posnett to show her the ropes.</p><p>Back then, Dunlevie was fresh out of college from Stanford and an analyst at the firm. In a recent call with Insider, she recalled spending long hours alongside Posnett, her former boss, and learning from her.</p><p>"I vividly remember sitting in a room with Kim, marking up a deck and explaining analysis," said Dunlevie, 35, who today has become one of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-partner-jane-dunlevie-investment-banking-tmt-2020-11'r=reed">Goldman's youngest partners</a>, and serves as its global co-head of Internet investment banking.</p><p>And rather than be exclusionary about bringing younger bankers into the dealmaking fold, Posnett was one of the more enthusiastic senior partners when it came to pushing younger bankers to own their own IPO pitches, Dunlevie said.</p><p>"Kim was the first person that let me go pitch by myself," she said. "Those dry-runs and rehearsals and the candid coaching are things that absolutely stand out for me."</p><p><strong>Read more: </strong><em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kim-posnett-goldman-sachs-youngest-solo-leader-investment-banking-services-2021-1'r=reed">Kim Posnett just became the youngest solo head of a Goldman Sachs unit known for being a launching pad for some of the bank's high-profile executives</a></em></p><p>Posnett, 43, is one of the most senior figures inside Goldman's investment bank. Formerly the co-COO of the bank's storied technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) group, she's been at the helm of its investment-banking services unit, a sort of salesforce for the global IB division, since September.</p><p>Initially appointed to run IB services alongside Matt Gibson, she has recently taken sole ownership of the group.</p><p>Earlier this month, Gibson was named to a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-sam-britton-matt-gibson-global-heads-tmt-2021-1">new role as co-head of global TMT</a> alongside Sam Britton, leaving <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kim-posnett-goldman-sachs-youngest-solo-leader-investment-banking-services-2021-1'r=reed">Posnett to head up IB services</a>. She is the youngest person and first woman to lead the group in its history, which stems back to the mid-20th century.</p><p>Posnett spoke to Insider about the her new role and how her team is working to keep pace with a dealmaking environment that is rapidly evolving as a result of the pandemic. </p><h2>Following her 'North star'</h2><p>Posnett attended Yale University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in history 1999, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimposnett/">according to her LinkedIn profile</a>. In 2003 she enrolled at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated with an MBA in finance in 2005.</p><p>That same year, she joined Goldman Sachs.</p><p>"My North star has been covering my clients and our firm's clients, and constantly thinking about how best to serve them with the best advice and most creative solutions," Posnett told Insider in a phone interview this week.</p><p>Over the years, that has meant running point on key deals for clients who are served by Goldman's high-profile TMT division. Posnett's record has included leading activities like IPOs for tech firms Wayfair, Pinterest, and Etsy; or advising on divestitures like the <a href="https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/viagogo-acquires-stubhub-from-ebay-for-4-05-billion/">sale of StubHub</a> from longtime client eBay to Viagogo, or the <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201207005958/en/">announced sale</a> of Uber's self-driving unit to auto-tech firm Aurora.<strong style="background-color: #00ffff;"><br></strong></p><p>Among the people whom Posnett counts as a mentor is Gregg Lemkau, the former co-head of Goldman's global investment banking division who <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gregg-lemkau-departing-goldman-sachs-banking-michael-dell-msd-partners-2020-11'r=reed">left the firm</a> in December to take on a new role as CEO of the Michael Dell-backed investment firm MSD Partners.</p><p>Posnett also named two other mentors: Dan Dees, a current co-head of global investment banking; and George Lee, co-chief information officer, who was previously a co-chair of global TMT and co-head of engineering within the investment bank.</p><p><strong>See more:</strong> <em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gregg-lemkau-departing-goldman-sachs-banking-michael-dell-msd-partners-2020-11'r=reed">Goldman Sachs' cohead of investment banking is jumping ship to be CEO of a Michael Dell-backed investment firm. Read the full memos the bank just sent about the exitand who's replacing him.</a></em></p><p>Lemkau told Insider that he first met Posnett more than a decade ago when he was global co-head of the TMT group at Goldman. The two have since maintained their friendship.</p><p>"Kim is phenomenally talentedextraordinarily smart, extraordinarily hard-working, and is an incredible relationship banker," Lemkau said. "Even in her earliest days covering clients, she was able to build relationships with very senior executives.</p><p>"She's very personable, gets to know clients and what they're trying to solve for, and uses that to build trusted relationships," Lemkau added. "She's always been great at that."</p><h2>A holistic approach to client coverage</h2><p>Since stepping into her most recent role in IB services last year, Posnett said that three central objectives are among her top priorities: fostering long-term client relationships, getting in the door with new clients, and "driving a holistic approach to client coverage."</p><p>That last goal is a nod to Goldman's 'One GS' approach, which encourages collaboration across the bank's divisions when serving the bank's clients. </p><p>For its part, the investment-banking services group has a <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/our-firm/history/moments/1956-whitehead-memo.html">long history</a> of doing just that. It was the brainchild of progenitor John Whitehead, a Goldman partner and co-chair who later served in President Ronald Reagan's administration.</p><p>In the mid-1950's, Whitehead proposed separating bankers who marketed and sold IB services to clients, and those who performed advisory services on day-to-day deals. The former would result in the IB services group, which functions, in effect, as a sales force.</p><p><strong>See more: </strong><em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-tmt-bankers-led-league-tables-in-2020-2021-1">Goldman Sachs' Sam Britton expects more 'dream deals' like Salesforce-Slack in 2021, and reveals the next hot M&A ideas</a></em></p><p>Leadership of the group has historically been something of a catapult for other senior Goldman bankers liked John Waldron, who is today Goldman's president.</p><p>"The move to head investment-banking services was a great chance to broaden her responsibilities beyond TMT, so that she could have greater impact across the division," Lemkau said. "This platform gives her the chance to engage with and interact with a broader group of people, which allow her to help develop and mentor the next generation of coverage bankers."</p><p>Meanwhile, Posnett has still maintained a role as one of Goldman's senior-most tech bankers. <strong><br></strong></p><p>As to how she balances the time necessary to meet the demands of both roles, "I wish I had an answer," she said. "My life would be simpler if I did."</p><h2>Different clients need different things</h2><p>The broader landscape of investment-banking in a COVID world is one of rapid transformation, much of which is likely to persist in a post-pandemic world, according to industry watchers.</p><p>Digital management presentations and remote roadshows have replaced standard M&A and IPO rites, for instance. Two-thirds of the mergers and acquisitions that Goldman advised in 2020 were completely virtual, Posnett said, thus opening the door to fresh approaches to doing diligence or other aspects of hammering out deals.</p><p>"You start to see the innovation like virtual data rooms," she said, "but also the use of drones, and other tools that were forced upon the industry because of the pandemic. It just accelerated what was already happening."</p><p><strong>Read more:</strong> <em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-bankers-tmt-2021-biden-ipo-roadshow-forecast-12'r=reed">2 of Goldman Sachs' top tech bankers explain how Biden could impact the listings frenzy and why the IPO roadshow will never be the same</a></em></p><p>As that innovation continues to drive client demands, Posnett's group works to understand what the bank's customers are primarily looking for, and helps make connections to the right team. Sometimes, innovation is incubated internally from the IBD's respective groups, or it might come as a response to a specific client request.</p><p>Those exchanges have produced results like Goldman's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-doordash-tried-to-reinvent-going-public-and-went-wrong-2020-12">hybrid public offerings</a>, or its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-delta-united-transportation-industrials-investment-banking-matt-mcclure-2020-12'r=reed">leveraging of airlines' frequent flyer points</a> to create liquidity in a sector that was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p>"We want to serve up innovative, creative, bespoke solutions," Posnett said. "Some may resonate, some may not, but we want to be holistic in our approach, we want to be long-term in our approach, and we also have to be dynamic in our approach."</p><h2>The power of 'practical' mentorship</h2><p>Posnett, who is also co-head of diversity within the investment bank, pointed to her function as a mentor to an upcoming generation of talent at Goldman as among her most crucial roles. She cited mentorship as a key part of the culture within Goldman, calling it a "privilege" to work with young bankers and see their progress. </p><p>Dunlevie said that people inside Goldman see Posnett as a trusted fount of advice and feedback, whether on work or personal matters.</p><p>"Kim is incredibly practical at advising people on how to manage work and life and relationships and parenthood," she said. "Lots and lots of people in the Goldman organization run all their life questions, concerns, and commiserations by Kim. And she's a great, great advocate for her people."</p><p>Lemkau also named mentoring early talent as among Posnett's strengths.</p><p>"I think she's done a great job in leaning into younger bankers, female bankers in particular, but not exclusively," he said. "Just as she's benefitted from active mentors, I think she's figured out, 'If I can give guidance and direction to a broad group of next-generation bankers, they'll all be better and the firm will be better.'"</p><p><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-partners-learned-david-solomon-morning-call-wall-street-2020-11'r=reed"><em>4 brand-new Goldman Sachs partners told us what it's like to get a call from CEO David Solomon inviting them to one of Wall Street's most exclusive groups</em></a></p><p>Some of Posnett's protegs have already reached stratospheric levels at Goldman, and are likely to continue rising.</p><p>Dunlevie, for instance, learned in November that she was one of seven TMT bankers <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-partners-learned-david-solomon-morning-call-wall-street-2020-11'r=reed">who had made partner</a>, Goldman's highest designation outside of the C-suite. Among her first calls were to her mentors, in order to break the news.</p><p>"The morning I made partner, I called one mentor who said, 'Why are you calling so early''" Dunlevie recalled. So she hung up and dialed Posnett.</p><p>"I called Kim, who I think put her phone on speaker and screamed into it in celebration," she said. "That gives you a sense of her brand of celebration and mentorship. She shares a lot of joy with the successes of her people."</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-tmt-bankers-led-league-tables-in-2020-2021'r=reed" >Goldman Sachs' Sam Britton expects more 'dream deals' like Salesforce-Slack in 2021, and reveals the next hot M&A ideas</a></strong></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-partner-jane-dunlevie-investment-banking-tmt-2020-11'r=reed" >One of Goldman Sachs' youngest new partners is a 35-year-old Silicon Valley native who leads deals with clients like Shopify and Pinterest</a></strong></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kim-posnett-goldman-sachs-youngest-solo-leader-investment-banking-services-2021-1'r=reed" >Kim Posnett just became the youngest solo head of a Goldman Sachs unit known for being a launching pad for some of the bank's high-profile executives</a></strong></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-delta-united-transportation-industrials-investment-banking-matt-mcclure-2020-12'r=reed" >A Goldman Sachs banker who leads a team that helped clients like Delta and Norwegian Cruise Line raise $120 billion in debt to weather the pandemic shares his 2021 outlook for the travel industry</a></strong></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kim-posnett-goldman-sachs-profile-interview-investment-banking-services-tech-2021-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-modest-home-bought-31500-looks-2017-6">Warren Buffett lives in a modest house that's worth .001% of his total wealth</a></p>
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