Late last year, John Waldron had a $500mn decision to make. Waldron, Goldman Sachs’ president and chief operating officer, had been approached by Apollo Global Management about a senior job offering life-changing money, even when set against the $30mn he earned the preceding year.

The investment firm was dangling a remuneration package that, over the course of a few years, would be worth several hundred million dollars and could even reach half a billion, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Waldron, 56, informed his boss David Solomon, 63. The two men had known each other for decades and risen in tandem to occupy the bank’s top two jobs. People who have worked with them describe their relationship as almost fraternal, with Solomon the protective elder brother.