Goldman CEO’s Most Loyal Deputy Is Tested by Mutinous Partners

The smell of seared red meat — $180 porterhouse, to be precise — hung in the air as bankers and traders from Goldman Sachs bluntly sized up their CEO.

In a once-unthinkable public display, a boisterous crew of senior managers gathered at an upscale Manhattan steakhouse last month and soon veered off their anodyne agenda. The conversation turned to the company’s failings and, in particular, those of its leader, David Solomon.

Their audience that evening, Goldman President John Waldron, sat across the white-linen-topped table and listened patiently.

Such dissent has become an alarmingly frequent occurrence at Goldman Sachs Group ...