Gerry Murphy Joins Blackstone’s Private Equity Group

London: The Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) today announced that Gerry Murphy will join the firm’s private equity team on March 3, 2008 as a Senior Managing Director, based in London. Gerry Murphy will focus principally on supporting Blackstone’s portfolio companies across Europe and Asia.

Before joining Blackstone, Gerry Murphy spent five years as CEO of Kingfisher, a FTSE 100 company, where he was responsible for the demerger of KESA Electricals and the integration of Castorama into the group, creating the leading home improvement retailer in Europe and Asia. He has also served as CEO of Carlton Communications plc, Exel plc and Greencore Group plc. He is currently a non-executive director at Reckitt Benckiser Group plc.

Earlier in his career, he held various senior positions in R&D, operations, marketing, corporate development and general management with Grand Metropolitan plc (now Diageo plc) in Ireland, the UK and the USA.

Tony James, President, said, “We are delighted to welcome Gerry to the firm. With over 16 years experience as a CEO of major international companies, including managing turnarounds, overseeing acquisitions, disposals and public demergers and managing thousands of staff, Gerry is well placed to work with our portfolio companies and their CEOs. He brings a unique expertise to Blackstone and will be an invaluable resource within the firm.”

Gerry Murphy was educated in Ireland and received his Bachelor of Science with Honours and his PhD in food technology from University College Cork and a 1st Class Masters in marketing from University College Dublin.

The Blackstone Group

The Blackstone Group is a leading global alternative asset manager and provider of financial advisory services. Its alternative asset management businesses include the management of corporate private equity funds, real estate opportunity funds, funds of hedge funds, mezzanine funds, senior debt funds, proprietary hedge funds and closed-end mutual funds. The Blackstone Group also provides various financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement service. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com.