Goldman’s Von Zuben Goes to Blackstone Year After Making Partner

(Bloomberg) -- Heather von Zuben, one of a small cohort of prominent Latina executives on Wall Street, is exiting Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for Blackstone Inc.

Von Zuben is leaving just a year after being elevated to the bank's top rank of partner. She was most recently global head of wealth-management alternatives and previously held other capital-raising roles tied to Goldman's own direct-investing programs, and has worked with external managers.

She will join Blackstone as a senior managing director, according to a spokeswoman for the New York-based investment firm. A representative for Goldman, also based in New York, declined to comment.

Goldman recently shuffled the structure of its asset-management unit and poured more resources into the business to showcase its strength to investors.

Von Zuben started her career at Davis Polk after graduating from Columbia Law School, then jumped to Goldman Sachs in 2007. She is routinely featured on Wall Street's most powerful Latina lists as the industry struggles to inject diversity into its highest ranks. Black and Hispanic executives at top levels of U.S. banks significantly lag the makeup of the broader population.

Von Zuben has spoken in the past about her parents and extended family from Cuba reinventing themselves in the U.S.

Blackstone also tapped Ida Hoghooghi, Goldman Chief Executive Officer David Solomon's former chief of staff, as chief operating officer of its business that caters to insurers, a key growth area for the firm. Half of the new cash from its record haul in the last quarter of 2021 was insurance assets Blackstone started managing after reaching deals with Allstate Corp. and American International Group Inc.