Blackstone Hires Ramzi Ramsey and Mike Kirkman as Managing Directors Based in San Francisco

Blackstone (NYSE: BX) today announced the appointment of investment professionals Ramzi Ramsey and Mike Kirkman as Managing Directors. They will work across the firm’s Blackstone Growth (BXG) and Tactical Opportunities (Tac Opps) businesses and will be based in San Francisco. Mr. Ramsey will focus on enterprise software and financial technology investments and Mr. Kirkman will focus on the healthcare sector.

BXG, Blackstone’s growth equity investing platform, invests in fast-growing companies, helping entrepreneurs become global industry champions through the power of the Blackstone platform. Tac Opps is Blackstone’s opportunistic investment platform, which invests globally across asset classes, industries and geographies, seeking to identify and execute on attractive, differentiated investment opportunities.

Jon Korngold, Global Head of BXG, said: “Ramzi and Mike are skilled investors with deep sector knowledge, and we are excited to have them join our team. We look forward to leveraging their expertise as we further build our Silicon Valley presence, and invest in and support fast-growing, market-leading companies through Blackstone’s global platform.”

Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Ramsey was a Partner at SoftBank’s Vision Fund where he led investment activity in the enterprise software sector in North America. Prior to SoftBank, Mr. Ramsey was an investor at TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) and began his investing career at TA Associates. Mr. Ramsey holds a BS with Honors from Carnegie Mellon University and completed his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Kirkman was a Director at GI Partners, a private equity firm based in San Francisco, where he focused on the healthcare and software sectors. Prior to joining GI Partners, Mr. Kirkman was with JLL Partners in New York where he focused on private equity investments in North America. He received a B.S. from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Recent technology and health-care focused investments through BXG include online dating company Bumble; leading enterprise software business, ISN; Epidemic Sound, which delivers restriction-free music to internet content creators across the globe; e-learning software company, Articulate; the on-demand mental health company, Ginger; and the fast-growing payment services provider, Mollie; among others.

Tac Opps recent investments include FireEye, a cyber security leader; Hotwire Communications, a leading provider of fiber-to-the-home; Ki, the first fully digital and algorithmically driven insurance underwriter in the Lloyd’s of London market; Diligent, a leading governance, risk and compliance (GRC) SaaS provider; HealthEdge, a healthcare IT solutions leader; and Cryoport, a global provider of mission-critical logistics solutions to life sciences companies.

About Blackstone
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. 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 $684 billion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, life sciences, 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.