Blackstone Hires Vini Letteri as a Senior Managing Director for Growth Equity Investing

New York – Blackstone (NYSE: BX) announced that Vini Letteri will join Blackstone Growth (“BXG”), the firm’s recently launched global growth equity investing platform. He will be a Senior Managing Director and brings two decades of experience as a seasoned growth equity investor and operations professional. Mr. Letteri joins BXG from KKR NGT’s growth equity platform, where he was the head of NGT North America and was the first employee in the firm’s growth equity business. He will be based in Blackstone’s San Francisco office and will lead BXG’s Financial Services efforts, among other senior leadership positions that he will assume across the business.

Last year, Blackstone launched a Growth Equity investment platform, led by Jon Korngold.  BXG provides capital to companies seeking to minimize the execution risks associated with high-growth environments. Recently, funds managed by Blackstone announced an investment in MagicLab, which builds and operates leading dating and social networking apps, including Bumble and Badoo.

Korngold commented: “Vini possesses the rare skillset of being both a highly talented growth equity investor and a world-class operating professional. That’s a powerful combination as we help entrepreneurs leverage Blackstone’s scale and deep operating resources to capitalize on transformational growth opportunities.”

David Blitzer, Global Head of Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities business, said: “We’re pleased to welcome Vini to the Blackstone team. His wide knowledge of the growth equity investing landscape and how to build first-rate companies will be an asset across our entire business.”

Vini Letteri added: “I’m excited to join Jon and the BXG team. Blackstone is exceptionally well positioned to provide a scale of operating support that is not otherwise available at traditional growth equity firms. That can play a critical role in helping entrepreneurs turn their fast-growing companies into global leaders.”

Prior to his joining KKR NGT, Mr. Letteri worked on the firm’s operations team, KKR Capstone, and was one of the first KKR Capstone employees in Asia, where he assisted in developing the firm’s presence across the region. He also helped lead KKR’s Green Portfolio Program, an effort to increase sustainability within portfolio companies. Prior to his thirteen years at KKR, Mr. Letteri led business development for Nike ID, Nike’s largest ecommerce business. He also spent several years at McKinsey & Co. in the firm’s private equity, retail and consumer spaces. He received an AB with Honors from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University.

About Blackstone

Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our asset management businesses, with $538 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis.  Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.    
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