Blackstone Participates in Annual Fortune—U.S. Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership  

June 21, 2022

Blackstone proudly participated in the annual Fortune—U.S. Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership, a program to empower global women leaders with critical leadership and business skills and pair them with top women executives from the United States’ most prestigious companies and their teams for customized mentorship. Kelley Morrell—Head of Asset Management within Blackstone’s Private Equity Businesses—hosted mentee Natalia Arango for a weeklong visit to help her hone skills from strategic planning to managing the board and client relationships.

Arango is the Executive Director of Fondo Acción, a Colombian non-profit that invests in nature conservation and children’s wellbeing. During its 20 years of operation, Fondo Acción has supported nearly 900 Colombian organizations and over 1,400 projects in the field.

Morrell facilitated networking between Arango and senior executives across Blackstone and its portfolio, from the realms of ESG, government relations, investing and beyond. Her itinerary included a board meeting with women-led portfolio company, SPANX, attending Blackstone Capital Partners Annual General Meeting where Morrell presented to investors and our Portfolio Operations’ inaugural Culture Club.

“I’ve learned so much from Kelley and everyone at Blackstone,” Arango said. “I’m going home with a lot of wisdom and ideas to implement at Fondo Acción like how to lead my team while being approachable.”

“Hosting Natalia allowed me to take a little bit of a step back to be able to teach and explain why we were doing things in certain ways, which was really helpful to me,” Morrell said, noting the reciprocal nature of the mentoring relationship. “Natalia is an expert in her field, which is different yet complementary to Blackstone’s, so she challenged me to consider what sustainability really means in my own work and to think more broadly,” she added.

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Kelley Morrell

Sr. Managing Director

Kelley Morrell is Head of Asset Management within Blackstone’s Private Equity businesses. In this role, she oversees the U.S. team of asset managers for Blackstone Capital Partners and a global team for Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and Blackstone Growth. Kelley and her team are responsible for creating and driving value-added initiatives alongside the investment team for our private equity strategies. She is also involved in the ongoing management and oversight of these group’s investment portfolios. Since joining Blackstone in 2017, Ms. Morrell has been involved with several Blackstone investments across industries and business strategies. She is currently a director of Spanx and of Centric Brands, where she serves on the audit and compensation committees. She previously was a Director of Lombard International and of Bumble, where she served on the compensation committee and acted as Interim President. Ms. Morrell is also the Co-Chair of the Blackstone Women’s Initiative Taskforce.

Before joining Blackstone in 2017, Ms. Morrell served as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at CIT Group and was a member of the Executive Management Committee. Prior to that, Ms. Morrell served in the Obama Administration, where she oversaw the taxpayers’ investments in Chrysler Financial and Chrysler Group. Ms. Morrell previously worked as an Associate at Hellman & Friedman where she was involved in the evaluation and execution of private equity transactions, and in investment banking at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in its Financial Institutions Group.

Ms. Morrell graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received her MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.