By Lananh Nguyen

NEW YORK Stephanie Cohen, the head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc's fintech unit called Platform Solutions, is taking a leave of absence for family reasons, she said in a memo to staff seen by Reuters.

"The past year has brought some challenges for my family," Cohen said in the memo. "While I have done my best to balance the important work we do here with my life at home, I have made the decision that taking some time away from work to focus on my family is the best choice."

Philip Berlinski, the bank's treasurer, and Ericka Leslie, its chief administrative officer, will handle Cohen's responsibilities in her absence.

Cohen is the only woman executive to lead one of Goldman's three main business units. She previously was co-head of its consumer and wealth management division, and also served as the company's chief strategy officer after climbing the ranks in the investment banking division.

Cohen joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in 1999, was named managing director in 2008 and partner in 2014.

Last year, Goldman created the Platform Solutions unit to house its credit card partnerships, transaction banking and GreenSky, a platform for home improvement loans that it bought for $2.2 billion in late 2021.

Goldman Sachs is running a sale process for GreenSky and may take a writedown on the $500 million of goodwill, or the premium it paid above the assets' book value, Goldman's president and chief operating officer, John Waldron, told investors at a conference last week.

(Reporting by Lananh Nguyen in New York; additional reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Nick Zieminski)