Goldman founded the investment bank that became Goldman Sachs.

Born in Bavaria, he emigrated to the United States in 1848 and worked as a peddler and shopkeeper in Philadelphia.

• In 1869, he opened a business trading commercial paper in New York, Marcus Goldman & Co.

• His son-in-law Samuel Sachs joined the firm in 1882, and it later adopted the name Goldman, Sachs & Co.