NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, promoted 262 executives to managing director a day after adding 115 partners, the firm’s top rank.Managing directors are appointed annually, while partners are named every other year. The nominations take effect on November 25, the start of the New York-based firm’s new fiscal year. While Goldman doesn’t disclose pay for managing directors, the promotions can be worth millions of dollars and put recipients next in line for the even-more lucrative title of partner.

“The managing directors are quite well-paid at Goldman Sachs, but not like the partners,” said Henry Higdon, an executive recruiter in New York whose financial-industry clients include Goldman. “You can’t hang around at Goldman, you’ve got to be productive, you’ve got to be adding value all the time.”

The nominations are the first under Lloyd Blankfein, who took over as chairman and chief executive officer in June when Henry Paulson became US Treasury Secretary. Goldman’s profit for the first nine months of 2006 surged 60 percent to $6.39 billion — more than any rival made in a full year. That means bigger rewards than ever for the firm’s partners, who share a special bonus at the end of each year, and its managing directors.

The number of new managing directors is short of the 209 named last year, the record since Goldman’s 1999 initial public offering. Goldman was owned by its partners for 130 years before the IPO, giving them the most influence and the biggest rewards at the firm. The decision to continue naming partners every two years is part of the firm’s effort to maintain its culture.

“The system has been so incredibly successful, it produces this great teamwork that they have and the results are indisputable,” Higdon said. “Everybody would like for their son or daughter to go to Goldman and become a partner — that’s the Holy Grail on Wall Street.”