⁍ Chavez retired as Goldman Sachs’ co-head of the securities division at the end of last year.

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⁍ Once considered a potential CEO candidate, Chavez held a number of roles during his 19 years at the firm.

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⁍ Chavez said during his time on Wall Street, firms ‘began to understand that diversity of your workforce was like diversification of your portfolio

– When Marty Chavez started working at Goldman Sachs in the 1990s, he says he “just blurted out” to his new boss that he was gay. “I think I need to tell you that I’m gay. And this was 1993,” the openly gay former co-head of the bank’s securities division tells Reuters. “All he could think of to say was, ‘Hey, do you have a boyfriend?’ Which is I think maybe not the response you would have in 2020, but I took that to mean, ‘Woah, this must be a gay friendly place.'” Chavez, who is Latino and openly gay, says he would still have hesitated to work on Wall Street had he been waiting for a Latino or LGBT mentor, “or God forbid, one who is both Latino and LGBT.” Chavez, who retired from Goldman Sachs at the end of last year, says the banking industry has come under fire for a lack of racial and gender diversity, but firms “began to understand that diversity of your workforce was like diversification of your portfolio.” He says his mentors were all “straight white Jewish males.” “I think it would have been more accurate for me to have concluded that this was a place that didn’t care if I was straight or gay. It just cared that I was good at math and software.”