An Oxford Blue in karate, a man who wrote an MSc thesis on "sparse-grid solutions to the Libor market model", a dragon boat racer and a former British Army officer are among the 261 Goldman Sachs staff named as new managing directors across its global offices and businesses, just one tier away from the coveted partnership pool at the US bank.

The new managing directors were announced in an internal memo on Friday. Last year Goldman Sachs promoted a record 321 managing directors while this year's total is the smallest since the financial crisis in 2008.