Meet the contenders duking it out to run Goldman Sachs' vaunted sales and trading division

London-based Michael Daffey is co-COO of equities with Paul Russo, with the former sales specialist complementing Russo's trading background.

Daffey joined Goldman Sachs back in 1994, making partner in 2002, and has previously headed global equities sales and head of fixed income and foreign exchange sales for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Back in 2008, he was described as the "unofficial gatekeeper" to a $1 million fantasy football league, and he also features in Greg Smith's book "Why I Left Goldman Sachs," in which he is described as a "rising star" and a "social genius." New York magazine called him the "the moral hero of the book."

With Russo, he runs a business that competes head-to-head with rival Morgan Stanley, and generated $2.31 billion in this year's first quarter, 38% higher than the same period a year prior.

Jim Esposito, who is based in London, is cochief operating officer of global fixed income, currencies, and commodities alongside Justin Gmelich.

He was named to this role in late 2017, previously serving as chief strategy officer of the securities division. That promotion came during a period of "extraordinary change" for the industry, according to the internal memo written at the time. He was tasked with growing the firm's client franchise.

He also ran global FICC sales and was cohead of the global financing group.

Before that, he led the financing group for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and served as COO of the investment-banking division.

Esposito's brothers are bankers, too, and his father was the CFO of Chase Manhattan from 1987 to 1991.

Esposito, who joined the firm in 1995 and made partner in 2006, sits on the firmwide risk and securities division executive and operating committees. He was named to the management committee in December 2015.

Justin Gmelich was named to a newly created role as COO of Goldman's fixed income, currencies and commodities division in late 2017 alongside Jim Esposito. Gmelich gave up his title as global head of credit and mortgage trading as part of that move.

Gmelich started his career out at Chase before moving to Salomon Brothers and then Goldman Sachs in 1998.

He previously headed US credit trading and mortgage trading, a business that has ranked as one of the best on Wall Street. He joined the Goldman Sachs management committee in 2014 alongside Michael Daffey and Paul Russo.

Gmelich is reportedly a strong advocate for promoting women on Wall Street. His wife is a former mortgage bond trader and his sister also works on the Street, according to a profile in The Glasshammer.

Paul Russo is a trader by training. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1989 as a summer associate and full time in 1990. He spent time in Hong Kong, London, and New York.

Together with Michael Daffey, he runs a business that generated $2.3 billion during the first quarter, up 38% from the year-ago period.

Before becoming co-COO of equities, Russo was the head of US equities trading and the head of global equities one delta trading. He made partner in 2000 and sits on the firmwide risk and securities division executive committees. He joined the management committee at the same time as Daffey and Gmelich.

A Buffalo, New York, native, Russo is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon, where he met his future wife, Allison Goldberg, in his junior year. He has an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Julian Salisbury is head of Goldman's special situations group, which invests on behalf of the firm in corporate equity and also lends to corporations and real estate firms.

The group used to be one of the most lucrative businesses on Wall Street prior to the financial crisis, before being forced to pull back when the government limited banks' abilities to make bets with their own capital.

Salisbury was previously head of European special situations in London and also worked in Moscow. He held several research roles at the firm, as well. He joined Goldman in 1998 and was named managing director in 2005 and partner three years later.

Prior to joining Goldman, Salisbury worked in the audit practice at KPMG.