2016

ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS PROXY STATEMENT THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Notice of 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders Time and Date

8:30 a.m., local time, on Friday, May 20, 2016

Place

Goldman Sachs offices located at: 30 Hudson Street, Jersey City, New Jersey 07302

Items of Business

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Record Date

Election to our Board of Directors of the 13 director nominees named in the attached Proxy Statement for a one-year term An advisory vote to approve executive compensation (Say on Pay) Ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2016 Consideration of shareholder proposals, if properly presented by the relevant shareholder proponents Transaction of such other business as may properly come before our 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders

The record date for the determination of the shareholders entitled to vote at our 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, or any adjournments or postponements thereof, was the close of business on March 21, 2016.

Important Notice Regarding the Availability of Proxy Materials for our Annual Meeting to be held on May 20, 2016. Our Proxy Statement, 2015 Annual Report to Shareholders and other materials are available on our website at www.gs.com/proxymaterials.

By Order of the Board of Directors,

Beverly L. O’Toole Assistant Secretary April 8, 2016

Your vote is important to us. Please exercise your shareholder right to vote. By April 8, 2016, we will have sent to certain of our shareholders a Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials (Notice). The Notice includes instructions on how to access our Proxy Statement and 2015 Annual Report to Shareholders and vote online. Shareholders who do not receive the Notice will continue to receive either a paper or an electronic copy of our proxy materials, which will be sent on or about April 12, 2016. For more information, see Frequently Asked Questions.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Letter from our Chairman and CEO .............. ii Letter from our Lead Director .................... iii Executive Summary ................................ 1 2016 Annual Meeting Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Matters to be Voted on at our 2016 Annual Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Performance Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Compensation Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Corporate Governance Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Corporate Governance ............................ 11 Item 1. Election of Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Our Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Independence of Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Structure of our Board and Governance Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Our Board Committees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Board Leadership Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Year-Round Review of Board Composition . . . 26 Director Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Board and Committee Evaluations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Board Oversight of our Firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Key Areas of Board Oversight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Commitment of our Board – 2015 Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Shareholder Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Our Commitment to Active Engagement with our Shareholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32