James November-December 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 52
opportunities as they come our way.
We’re also playing our part in
connecting that talent to career opportunities within the portfolio. Several
of our Atlanta companies participate
in Blackstone Career Pathways— our
signature program that aims to create
more valuable businesses by hiring,
developing and advancing professionals from historically untapped talent
pools, such as HBCU alumni, individuals without 4-year college degrees,
veterans and refugees. We help our
portfolio companies become employers of choice for this talent by building
the necessary tools and systems to
disrupt traditional hiring and advancement practices, which enables them to
thrive in a complex labor market and
deliver better business outcomes.
Lastly, we’re helping develop
promising talent at Atlanta’s higher
education institutions. Through a $1.5
million partnership, we brought Blackstone LaunchPad to three Historically
Black Colleges and Universities— More-
52
JAMES
house, Spelman and Clark Atlanta.
LaunchPad equips students with the
entrepreneurial skills they need to
build strong careers and connects
them to internships at our network
of partners. We’re proud of these
programs and excited to see how the
talent we’re nurturing will shape Atlanta’s economy in the years to come.
dedicated to tech lending within our
Credit and Insurance business to, most
recently, leading our private equity
strategy for individual investors.
Our founder, Steve Schwarzman,
likes to say that “there are no patents
in finance”— and that mindset pervades everything we do. Our clients’
needs aren’t the same as they were
in 1985 when we were founded, or in
JAMES You’ve been at Blackstone for
2007, when we had our IPO, or even in
nearly two decades. What is it about
2011, when PWS was launched— and
the firm that keeps you around, and
we’re constantly evolving to better
what advice would you give to a newmeet those needs.
comer to the firm (and/or the industry)?
That experience informs the
advice I would give to new joiners at
PATEL What I would say has truly deBlackstone or industry newcomers:
fined my experience at Blackstone has maintain the mindset of an entreprebeen the spirit of entrepreneurialism.
neur. It encourages you to continue
It has enabled me to continue reinvent- innovating throughout your career, no
ing myself and building exciting new
matter what your experience or title.
parts of the business over my nearly
Being eager and open to taking on
20-year career at the firm— from shapnew opportunities will help you meet
ing the early stages of our Tactical
more people and develop more robust
Opportunities and Blackstone Growth skillsets, even and especially when the
businesses to building out a team
path forward is uncharted.
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