In this episode of Beyond Barriers, host Brooke Skinner Ricketts has a compelling conversation with R. Martin “Marty” Chavez, a trailblazer who has bridged the worlds of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. As the former CIO and CFO of Goldman Sachs and now Vice Chairman of Sixth Street, Marty has been at the forefront of transforming finance through technology. He shares his fascinating journey—from his early days in Albuquerque, where he programmed nuclear test simulations, to leading one of the most influential investment banks into the digital age.
Marty opens up about the hurdles he faced as one of the few openly gay and Latino leaders in finance, navigating a world where diversity was scarce at the top. He reveals how resilience, mentorship, and the ability to think like a computer scientist helped him break barriers and redefine industries. This episode goes beyond career achievements, exploring the importance of staying adaptable in the face of unexpected challenges, the critical role of mentorship in shaping one’s path, and the evolving impact of AI on business and society.
Whether you’re looking for career inspiration, insights into the future of AI, or advice on thriving as a diverse leader, Marty’s story will leave you motivated to redefine your own journey.
Key Takeaways:
- The importance of flexibility in one’s career and how defining yourself broadly allows for endless opportunities.
- Insights into the future of AI and how it will shape industries, with Marty’s perspective on the intersection of software, life sciences, and capital.
- The role of mentorship and sponsorship in navigating career growth, especially for underrepresented groups.
- Marty’s emphasis on defining personal priorities and balancing peace of mind with career success.
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Highlights
The key moments in this episode are:
[00:00] Introduction to Beyond Barriers
[00:30] Personal Journey and Early Challenges
[01:24] Career Highlights and Achievements
[02:03] Navigating Career Pivots and Mentorship
[09:29] Insights on AI and Future Predictions
[12:04] Adapting Skills and Overcoming Obstacles
[21:38] Coming Out and Embracing Diversity
[26:13] Valuing Lived Experience
[26:54] The Business Case for Diversity
[28:06] Reflections on Wall Street's Diversity
[29:59] Navigating Career Transitions
[32:02] The Role of Mentors and Sponsors
[38:13] Daily Rituals and Personal Priorities
[42:20] Lightning Round: Books, Quotes, and Life Lessons -
Lightning Round
Q: What book has greatly influenced you?
A: Brideshead Revisited, a novel by the English writer Evelyn WaughQ: What is your favorite inspiring quote or saying?
A: It was 2003, and I was at a Japanese Buddhist monastery in Kyoto. I had just finished Zazen meditation, and the monk—you're going to think this sounds like a movie script, but it actually happened—came toward me. I was the only Westerner in the class, and he had a bamboo rod. I thought I was going to get whacked for fidgeting, but instead, he pulled a piece of paper from his robe and handed it to me. I was with a Japanese friend who explained that this was a synthesis of Shinto and Buddhism, and it was my personal prophecy—the monk had chosen it for me. It read [in Japanese], 'The gods guide us to the people we are seeking.' I thought, 'Wow, that’s the perfect definition of serendipity. You can’t just sit in your chair—you have to seek, and it’s not all you. The universe has to guide you too.Q: What is one word or moniker you would use to describe yourself?
A: Tenacious.Q: What is one change you've implemented that made your life better?
A: My number one priority is my peace of mind, and to support that, a big part of my routine is working out. I’m a better person in every way when I get exercise. If I don’t, I get grumpy, angry, and short-tempered. No matter what hustle culture says about work, my peace of mind comes first. Right after that is my family. I’ve learned I can’t be there for them unless I have peace of mind. And very clearly in third place is work. People who know me understand not to interfere with that order of priorities.Q: What power song would you want playing as you walk out onto a stage?
A: We are the Champions by Queen -
Quotes
The gods guide us to the people we are seeking. You can't just sit in your chair—you have to do some seeking, and the universe will guide you.
Marty Chavez
The world will press you into a little box. You should be aiming for a great big box that gives you a lot of optionality.
Marty Chavez
My number one priority is my peace of mind, and everything else comes after that.
Marty Chavez
My nightmare is getting chosen just to check some diversity boxes. If we can do some useful, valuable, fun things together and check some boxes as side effect, I'm okay with that.
Marty Chavez
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About
Martin (“Marty”) Chavez, Ph.D. is widely renowned as a trailblazer and leader who turned the Wall Street trading business into a software business, revolutionizing the way that capital moves and works. He is a partner and vice chairman of Sixth Street, where he works on research and development; diversity, equity, and inclusion; the sourcing engine; and the More Than Capital business, driving deeper engagement with the portfolio companies. Before joining Sixth Street, Marty served in a variety of senior roles at Goldman Sachs, including Chief Information Officer, where he oversaw the firm’s 9,000 engineers; Chief Financial Officer; and global co-head of the firm’s Securities (now Global Markets) Division. Marty was also a partner and member of the Goldman Sachs management committee.
Marty has achieved singular acclaim in the financial-services industry for his work on SecDB, an early platform that transformed the trading business into a software business. He is also known for bringing the front and back offices together. By training, he is a computer scientist who successfully advocated for the elevation of engineers. Yet Marty is also a highly regarded investor in his own right, leveraging his background in machine learning to push the industry forward.
Far from the stereotype of a banker, Marty is a disrupter at heart. He was among the most senior Latinos on Wall Street, as well as the most senior openly gay executive at Goldman Sachs. In 2016, a New York Times profile described Marty as “a departure in sensibility from the buttoned-down partners of Goldman lore.”
Adept in both Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Marty co-founded San Francisco start-up, Quorum Software Systems. Later, he was CEO of Kiodex, a New York risk management systems company that SunGard Data Systems acquired in 2004.
Beyond finance, Marty has long held a passion for converging the life sciences and software, and has an eye for new applications of AI and technology that will transform industries. Since retiring from Goldman Sachs, Marty serves as an advisor and board member to multiple startups and projects that are accelerating breakthroughs in their fields.
Marty serves on the Board of Directors of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). In addition, he chairs the Board of Directors of Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:RXRX), a digital biology company industrializing drug discovery by harnessing the power of cloud-based machine learning models. He advises numerous other companies, including Abacus.AI, an AI startup developing new approaches to deep learning; Cambrian Biopharma, a distributed drug discovery company developing medicines to extend healthy lifespans; Earli, which delivers new technologies for identifying and localizing early-stage cancers; and Ketch, which delivers responsive infrastructure for compliance and data security.
Marty serves on the Board of Directors of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the Stanford Medicine Board of Fellows, and the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Previously, he served on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University (and as President for the 2020-2021 academic year). He also served on the board of directors of Grupo Santander; the Institute for Advanced Study, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), Paige.AI, PNM Resources, Inc., and Sema4. A passionate patron of the arts, he has served on the boards of the Friends of the High Line, amFAR (the Foundation for AIDS Research), and the Santa Fe Opera. Marty resides in the Berkshires, and is the proud father of two.
He holds an A.B. (1985) magna cum laude in Biochemical Sciences and an S.M. (1985) in Computer Science from Harvard, and a Ph.D. (1990) in Medical Information Sciences from Stanford (Architectures and Algorithms for Probabilistic Expert Systems).