Blackstone makes leadership promotions
Blackstone has made three appointments to key firmwide roles and created two new functions to boostclient coverage and capital raising.
Farhad Karim will become global chief operating officer of Private Wealth Solutions (PWS), which provides financial advisors access to institutional-quality alternative investments for their clients, including products across real estate, credit, private equity and infrastructure.
Karim will be responsible for overseeing the group’s day-to-day operations, including continued product and regional expansion.
Blackstone launched PWS more than a decade ago, which today manages $250bn (£198bn) in assets across the private wealth channel.
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Karim joined Blackstone in 2011 and currently serves as chairman and chief operating officer of Blackstone Europe, as well as general counsel of Blackstone real estate. Prior to joining Blackstone, he spent more than a decade at the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where he was a partner.
Chris Sullivan will become head of sponsor coverage. In this role, he will oversee the delivery of Blackstone’s multi-asset class solutions to private equity sponsors across debt and equity strategies.
Sullivan has been with Blackstone since 2021, leading private credit sponsor relationships in Blackstone’s credit and insurance business. Prior to Blackstone, he spent more than 20 years at Barclays.
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Adam Lane will join the firm as head of consultant relations. He will focus on cultivating Blackstone’s enterprise-level relationships with consultants. He will also assist Blackstone’s private capital group.
Lane joins Blackstone following nearly two decades at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where he most recently served as partner, global head of wealth management alternatives and co-head of US third party wealth.
“These appointments underscore the tremendous momentum at Blackstone in terms of accelerating who we serve and the breadth of solutions we offer,” said Jon Gray, Blackstone president and chief operating officer. “By elevating leaders like Farhad and Chris, and adding exceptional talent like Adam, we continue to build on this strength.”
Global head of PWS Joan Solotar added: “Farhad is a long-serving, proven Blackstone leader who played a pivotal role in building and scaling our real estate business, creating perpetual products, and growing our business internationally. He will be a tremendous asset as we continue to expand how we serve individual investors around the world.”
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