We are still seeing a lot of media speculation when it comes to executive succession issues at Goldman Sachs. Most of the chatter has been about CEO Lloyd Blankfein and, to a lesser extent, President Gary Cohn. Bloomberg weighs in with an article about CFO David Viniar and how the board might choose to replace him.

The news service says that replacing Viniar may be a bigger issue in the minds of institutions than replacing Blankfein.

"The longest-serving chief financial officer of any major Wall Street firm may find his multiple roles distributed among two or even three deputies when he eventually steps down, according to two people with knowledge of the firm's internal deliberations. While Viniar, 55, told an analyst in May that he has no immediate plan to leave, he has held the CFO post since March 1999, has amassed more than $254 million of Goldman Sachs stock and has endured some of the most withering public scrutiny the New York-based company has ever faced."

The board is no doubt thinking of the future. The leading contenders may be Controller and Chief Accounting Officer Sarah Smith, who joined Goldman Sachs in 1996 from KPMG, and Treasurer Elizabeth "Liz" Beshel, who joined in 1990 and remains a confidante of Viniar. How they replace the CFO vis a vis the CEO is tricky issue, however, as the new CEO may want his own candidate. 

For more:
- here's the article

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