- Feroz Khosla, part of Goldman Sachs’ financing group, was named a Goldman partner on Thursday.
- At 35, Khosla is the youngest member of the firm’s new 2024 class of partners.
- Khosla, who was previously one of BI 2024’s Rising Stars, spoke to us about celebrating this win.
Feroz Khosla was sitting at his desk in Goldman Sachs’ low-key Manhattan headquarters when the call came.
On the line was John Waldron, Goldman’s president and chief operating officer, who asked Khosla how he was feeling. “Something tells me I’m going to feel a lot better after this call,” Khosla said. The two men exchanged a laugh and then Waldron delivered the news.
“We would like to welcome you to the partnership,” Khosla told Waldron. “I can’t wait to call you my partner.”
Khosla is one of 95 Goldman executives to receive such a call Thursday, part of a biennial ritual meant to honor and uphold the firm’s genesis as a partnership. At 35, Khosla is the youngest member of the partner class of 2024. He is also one of the 29% of new partners who joined Goldman as a summer intern — 2009 in Khosla’s case.
Goldman Sachs partners make up the firm’s most senior executives outside the C-Suite, responsible for units that represent billions of dollars in business.
Khosla works in the financing group within Goldman’s global banking and capital markets division, where he leads the investment-grade financing and corporate derivatives business for healthcare and real estate. He works with CFO and treasury clients on their capital structure and funding needs and advises them on the implications of macro risks in specific transactions, such as fluctuations in interest rates or currency valuations.
The corporate derivatives business is housed within Goldman’s overall financing unit, which includes both equity and debt underwriting. Increased lending needs from corporate borrowers helped lift Goldman’s debt underwriting revenue by 46% in the third quarter versus the same time in 2023.
In an interview with BI, Khosla took Business Insider through this important day in his career, from who he called first to how he celebrated with his family and boss.
David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs. Michael Kovac
Champagne toast, ‘welcome to the family’
“The responsibility part becomes absolutely deeper, heavier,” Khosla said of the partner title. However, he and some of his new partners have found time to celebrate.
At the office Thursday, several new partners enjoyed cake with their teams, an insider said. There were also celebratory dinners all over Manhattan. Khosla, one of BI Wall Street’s 2024 Rising Stars, attended a dinner hosted by Vivek Bantwal, Goldman’s global head of finance, who heads Khosla’s group, as well as other current partners.
Bantwal and the other partners invited about 15 people — new partners and their spouses — to a midtown Manhattan restaurant, where Bantwal opened what Khosla called “a very special bottle of champagne that had been given to him by a partner another, and he” I have been saving for such an occasion.”
At one point, someone leaned over and said to Khosla’s wife, “Welcome to the family,” he said.
In his interview with BI on Friday, Khosla acknowledged his team’s contributions in helping him make partner, saying he aims to call on every person in his department — from junior analysts to fellow partners — to thank them. “Goldman Sachs was the first family I really had when I left India,” he said, adding: “Honestly, it’s the only shirt I want to wear.”
He has already thanked his loved ones. His parents, he said, are from India and made sacrifices to send him to America to pursue his education. His wife, Lucy, is no stranger to canceling appointments to care for their children, ages 2 and 4, when work has kept Khosla up late.
“I immediately texted my dad just to say, ‘We did it,'” he recalls. “Then I called my wife and thanked her and congratulated her,” he said, adding, “This is not just one individual’s day and I think it’s not going to be one individual’s holiday.”
Khosla said he and his wife hope to use this new achievement to advance opportunities for his children. Education, he said, was vital to his upbringing: his parents laminated multiplication tables for their children to use as placemats when they ate. Being asked by his mother as she drove him to school, he said, kept him sharp.
Khosla said he knows he has a lot of work ahead of him to prove he deserves the title. One way to pump himself up, he said, is with playlists of movie trailers he listens to while running.
Thinking about which trailer might best describe the current point in his career, he said, “Mission Impossible.”
Are you a Goldman Sachs insider? Contact this reporter. Reed Alexander can be reached by email at ralexander@businessinsider.comor Coded App SMS/Signal to (561) 247-5758.