Key facts
- Woodson, 34, oversees trading in leveraged corporate debt and loans at Goldman Sachs.
- He is the second-youngest of the 109 executives Goldman promoted to partner this year.
- Woodson joined Goldman in 2014 in investment-grade private credit and later headed US distressed credit trading.
- He became head of leveraged finance trading in fall 2026.
- About 50 internal colleagues and 20 clients attended the celebration at Monk McGinn's.
Goldman Sachs promoted Jake Woodson to partner on November 5, 2026, firm president John Waldron told him by phone during a trading session in which AI stocks were falling after the midterms and all three benchmark indexes were declining, Business Insider reported. Woodson, 34, oversees trading in leveraged corporate debt and loans and is the second-youngest of the 109 executives who earned the promotion this year, the firm said.
Woodson said the trading floor went quiet as he took the call, and that colleagues on the leveraged finance credit desk applauded. "It was high-fives and hugs, and then right back to trading for the rest of the day," he said early the following week.
He called his mother, father and brother during the work day. His mother had flown to New York from his hometown outside Vancouver, Canada, and joined Woodson and Goldman's larger credit business that evening in the private room of Monk McGinn's, a pub near the office, where she met about 50 internal colleagues and 20 clients. Woodson and his mother left the pub earlier than most for a quiet dinner at his apartment, calling his father and brother in Canada by video.
Woodson joined Goldman in 2014 in investment-grade private credit. He was a distressed credit trader during the pandemic and, as head of US distressed credit trading, led his team through the 2023 banking crisis before becoming head of leveraged finance trading in fall 2026. He studied finance at the University of British Columbia, where he was accepted into its Portfolio Management Foundation.