The former cohead of trading at Goldman Sachs revealed that a conversation with Peter Thiel helped trigge.. – Business Insider

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Marty Chavez, Goldman CIO, Martin Chavez, R. Martin ChavezGetty Images/ Fernanda Calfat

  • Marty Chavez, the former top trading chief of Goldman Sachs, said in an interview with Business Insider that a conversation with the venture capitalist Peter Thiel sparked his decision to the leave the bank. 
  • Chavez said the conversation with Thiel was a “galvanizing moment” for his decision to retire from Goldman Sachs and move to Los Angeles.
  • Thiel is best known for cofounding PayPal and making early an investment in Facebook. He also left Silicon Valley in 2018 to settle in the Los Angeles tech scene. 
  • Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

Goldman Sachs’ former trading chief said a conversation with the venture capitalist Peter Thiel triggered his decision to retire from the bank and move to Los Angeles. 

“A galvanizing moment for me was in February, actually of last year,” Chavez told Business Insider in an interview. “I was at a gathering in Venice Beach and my friend Peter Thiel, who has a very direct and remarkable way of speaking, stopped me midsentence and said when are you going to stop talking about moving to LA and actually move to LA.”

Thiel is best known for cofounding PayPal and for making an early investment into Facebook. He also moved from Silicon Valley in 2018 to embed himself in the Los Angeles tech scene.

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Chavez told Business Insider that he’d been considering retirement for some time and was actively talking to mentors and friends about what his next steps should be. Chavez had been searching for something that would help him maintain his priorities, which he said were his children, his job, and his peace of mind. 

“It’s just becoming more and more clear to me that to stay consistent with that list I needed a new project,” Chavez said. His next steps now have a new name: “Project Kids, Freedom, and Sunshine.” 

Once Chavez arrives in Los Angeles, he plans to take a break for a bit. His only commitment is to teach a class on software in finance next spring at Stanford’s business school. He may also advise some private equity or venture-capital firms, he added. 

NOW READ: Marty Chavez is retiring from Goldman Sachs. We chatted with him about the bank’s tech transformation, why now is the right time for him to step down, and what he’s planning next.