GE Power CEO, Steve Bolze, Joins Blackstone’s Infrastructure Business as Head of Portfolio Operations and Asset Management
New York, August 3, 2017 – Blackstone (NYSE:BX) today announced that Stephen R. Bolze, former President & CEO of General Electric’s (NYSE:GE) $28 billion Power business, will join Blackstone as a Senior Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Operations and Asset Management for Blackstone’s newly launched dedicated Infrastructure business. In this role, Bolze will partner with portfolio company CEOs to drive key value creation initiatives throughout our infrastructure companies, reporting to Sean Klimczak, Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Blackstone’s Infrastructure business.
In May, Blackstone announced the launch of its new investment vehicle dedicated to infrastructure with an anchor $20 billion commitment by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Blackstone anticipates that, over time, the program will have $40 billion in total equity commitments in a permanent capital vehicle, including $20 billion to be raised from other investors. Overall, through the equity in this vehicle and additional debt financing, Blackstone expects to invest in more than $100 billion of infrastructure projects, principally in the United States.
Bolze will join Blackstone in October from a nearly 25 year career at General Electric, during which time he successfully led a number of the company’s largest businesses, operating in over 140 countries with 52,000 employees. In his most recent role with GE Power and its prior businesses (Thermal Power Generation, Nuclear, Wind, Water and Distributed Generation), where he oversaw extensive infrastructure investments globally, Bolze helped grow overall revenues 70 percent from $16.5 billion to $28 billion over a 10-year period, and led the successful turnaround of the Wind and Thermal units. Bolze also oversaw major acquisitions, including the $14 billion acquisition of Alstom Power & Grid – the largest industrial acquisition in GE history. Prior to GE Power, he held senior roles with GE Healthcare, GE Energy and GE Corporate.
Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone, said: “We are delighted to welcome Steve to Blackstone as we build out our team of best-in-class infrastructure professionals. Across our investment strategies, infrastructure investing has been one of Blackstone’s most successful and active areas. We believe that these investments will play a vital role in helping the United States rebuild its aging infrastructure and know Steve’s extensive expertise will contribute greatly to that effort.”
Sean Klimczak, Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Blackstone’s Infrastructure business, said: “Over his long and successful career at GE, Steve has proven himself to be a world-class operator in the infrastructure sector, having overseen remarkable revenue and profit growth across business cycles and building broad global relationships across industries. He will help us continue Blackstone’s 30-year track record of investing in some of the world’s leading companies and driving transformational change to produce successful outcomes for local communities and our investors.”
Steve Bolze added: “I am excited to be joining Blackstone – which I have admired and watched grow over much of my career. I look forward to working with Steve, Sean and the balance of the team at Blackstone to help build the firm’s infrastructure business at this pivotal time in the evolution of the industry where critical infrastructure investment is needed across sectors and geographies.”
This release does not constitute an offer of any Blackstone fund.
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 over $370 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, 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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