It's probably all true, but the piece reads like an extended resume. If only I could get NY Times to let me rant about how ethical I am and what trillion-dollar clients I advised.
If you're going to write a piece about leaving a firm, you need to establish why your opinion is more important to your readers than the opinions issued as inevitable rebuttals to this piece. That is purpose of including his resume.
I agree with you but if you are at his level, you don't really need a resume anymore. Financial industry is all about who you know and from what I can see, he is very well connected.
FYI Executive Director at GS means the same thing as VP, which sounds much more impressive than it actually is. There are literally thousands of them. To put it another way, ED is a level up from Analyst. The real cheese begins at Managing Director -- which is the first level you don't reach through seniority, but through "skill" (or politicking!).
"Greg Smith is resigning today as a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa."
I could be wrong, but I don't think the number of positions heading business units across continents is that large.