(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc's (>> Goldman Sachs Group) global head of equity capital markets, Stephen Pierce, has decided to retire from the role, effective July 1, after 31 years with the Wall Street bank, the company said in a memo.

He will remain with the firm as an advisory director and will serve on several committees.

"There will be no replacement at this time for global head (of equity capital markets)," the company said in an email on Friday.

The bank said regional heads would be responsible for the coverage.

Pierce joined the firm as a corporate finance analyst in 1984 after graduating from Stanford and was part of the team that took the firm public in 1999.

Pierce became a managing director in 1997 and a partner in 2000, the memo said.

Goldman Sachs posted a 2 percent drop in trading revenue for the first quarter ended March 31, a sharp contrast to results from JPMorgan Chase & Co (>> JP Morgan Chase & Company), Citigroup Inc (>> Citigroup) and Bank of America Corp (>> Bank of America), which all beat analyst estimates due to strength in trading.

Goldman's revenue from investment banking, investment management and investing and lending all rose in the first quarter, but was not enough to offset the sharp decline in trading.

The investment bank is expected to report its second quarter results in July.

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Diptendu Lahiri; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Arun Koyyur)