Blackstone Innovations Investments

John Stecher is the Chief Technology Officer of Blackstone. Mr. Stecher is responsible for all aspects of technology across Blackstone and advises the firm’s investment teams as well as acts as a resource to portfolio companies on technology-related matters.

Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Stecher was a Managing Director, the Chief Technology Officer and the Chief Innovation Officer at Barclays, based in New York, and he was also a member of the Barclays Technology Management Committee. Prior to joining Barclays in August 2017, Mr. Stecher worked for Goldman Sachs where he held a variety of senior management and engineering roles across the firm’s capital markets and technology divisions, and most recently built their Marcus-branded consumer finance division. Mr. Stecher has had an extensive career in technology and engineering across industry sectors. Mr. Stecher was appointed as an IBM Master Inventor and led application development, architecture and strategy for IBM’s WebSphere product line in the Software Group, and he delivered/created over 45 patents across several diverse problem spaces.

Mr. Stecher holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and a MS in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota.

Eric Liaw is a Senior Managing Director, the Treasurer, and the Head of Corporate Development for Blackstone.  Mr. Liaw leads Blackstone Global Treasury, which oversees the firm’s balance sheet, risk management activities, and treasury operations. Mr. Liaw also leads strategic mergers and acquisitions, new business initiatives, and special projects in support of Blackstone. Mr. Liaw is also a member of the firm’s Capital Markets, Enterprise Risk, Liquid Asset Investments, and Valuation Committees.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Liaw was a Senior Managing Director in Blackstone’s private equity business, focused on investments in the energy sector. Prior to joining Blackstone in 2014, Mr. Liaw was a Principal at TPG Capital where he evaluated and executed investment opportunities in a wide range of industries. Prior to TPG, Mr. Liaw was an associate at Bain Capital, where he focused on private equity investments in a wide range of industries.

Mr. Liaw received his BA, with highest honors, and BBA, with highest honors, from the University of Texas at Austin and received his MBA, with distinction, from Harvard Business School.

Stevi Petrelli is a Managing Director and Head of Blackstone Innovations Investments (BXI Investments) at Blackstone. She oversees the firm’s internal investments in early-stage FinTech, PropTech, Cybersecurity and Enterprise Tech companies, working across BXTI and various businesses to drive these investments and help accelerate innovation across the firm.

Prior to joining Blackstone in 2021, Ms. Petrelli worked at Goldman Sachs, where she helped oversee the firm’s principal strategic investments portfolio and internal innovation incubation efforts as part of the Firmwide Strategy team. Ms. Petrelli also worked on core strategy efforts with a number of Goldman’s businesses and helped lead the firm’s financial technology partnership efforts. Earlier in her career, she was a Vice President at Point72 Ventures and a member of the Principal Strategic Investments team at Goldman Sachs. In both roles, Ms. Petrelli focused on sourcing and executing early-stage investment opportunities in the financial technology space.

Ms. Petrelli received a BA in Political Science from Yale University.