Goldman Sachs hired Les Lukenas, twin of BofA associate who died, as a summer intern
When his identical twin brother, Leo Lukenas, died of heart complications in May while working for Bank of America, Les Lukenas expressed his "profound sorrow." Leo's "greatest dream was to provide for his family," said Les, launching a crowdsourcing campaign to raise $1m. "Leo was dedicated to everything he did, never settling for good enough."
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Two months after his brother's death, Les Lukenas also began working in investment banking. He's spent the summer as an investment banking summer associate at Goldman Sachs' New York office.
Like Leo, Les transitioned into investment banking after time as a green beret in the US special forces. He's one year into an MBA at the UNC Kenan Flagler Business School.
Leo Lukenas died after allegedly working 120+ hour weeks in the financial institutions group (FIG) at Bank of America. The bank said its own record of Leo's working hours didn't indicate this, but the Wall Street Journal said this week that Bank of America juniors had been encouraged to understate the hours they'd worked to avoid alerting HR. A recruiter told Reuters that Leo had sought to leave BofA because the hours there were excessive.
Les joined Goldman Sachs amidst a furore over working hours in finance as a result of his brother's death, with junior bankers at multiple firms complaining of heart problems due to stress and lack of sleep.
Goldman Sachs' experienced complaints about working hours in 2021 when a group of analysts in the TMT group assembled a PowerPoint survey complaining that they were working over 100 hours a week and that their mental and physical health had significantly deteriorated as a result. That survey resulted in attempts to limit juniors' working hours and hiring to expand analyst and associate teams. However, as deals dwindled and banks cut costs, junior bankers were cut and remaining staff across the industry have had to take on more work again.
It's still possible to donate to the fundraiser for Leo Lukenas' family, which has currently raised 42% of its target.
Goldman Sachs didn't respond to a request to comment.
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