Blackstone Participates in White House Summit on Working Families
New York, June 23, 2014. Blackstone (NYSE: BX) today announced that its Global Head of Human Resources, Laura Waitz, will participate in the White House Summit on Working Families. The summit is designed to help eliminate barriers based on gender and family responsibilities in an effort to ensure the continuing competitiveness of America’s labor force in the global economy. At the summit, Waitz will act as Blackstone’s representative in a dialogue between the private and public sectors about current issues facing working families. Blackstone has established extensive policies to make fulfilling both work and family responsibilities easier for its employees.
“Our people remain the foundation of our success, and I am proud of our participation in this summit, as well as of our work inside the firm to support employees with family responsibilities,” said Stephen A. Schwarzman, Blackstone’s Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder. “As the economy recovers, maintaining our nation’s global competitiveness through efforts such as these remains a top priority.”
“At Blackstone, we view all of our employees as part of the Blackstone family and we make a special effort to provide comprehensive resources to help our employees integrate family and work,” said Laura Waitz. “We view this as a priority and look forward to being part of continued private-sector engagement to provide all employees with the opportunity to succeed.”
Examples of Blackstone’s initiatives in this area include:
- Paid maternity, paternity, and adoption leave for new parents
- Subsidized back-up childcare and eldercare options for all employees through a partnership with Bright Horizons
- Wide range of parenting resources at no cost to employees, including access to childcare specialists, counseling services, and advising on financial planning
- Multiple onsite private “family” rooms for nursing mothers
- Phase-back to work program for new mothers returning back from maternity leave
The summit is jointly hosted by the Center for American Progress, the Department of Labor, and the White House Council on Women and Girls. Participants in the summit will discuss issues facing working families, including equal pay protections, minimum wage, job-quality, and equality of access to jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Contact:
Christine Anderson
Global Public Affairs
+ 1 212 583 5182
About Blackstone
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment and advisory firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, the companies we advise and the broader global economy. We do this through the commitment of our extraordinary people and flexible capital. Our asset management businesses include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, hedge fund solutions, non-investment grade credit, secondary funds, and multi asset class exposures falling outside of other funds’ mandates. Blackstone also provides various financial advisory services, including financial and strategic advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.