Blackstone Adds to Portfolio Management Team Expertise
New York, March 1, 2007: The Blackstone Group today announced that Ravi Ramanan has joined the firm’s private equity group as Executive Director. He will bring valuable expertise to the firm’s growing portfolio management group in monitoring and advising on the strategy and operational performance of Blackstone’s increasingly complex and global portfolio company holdings.
Mr. Ramanan was formerly Senior Vice-President, Functional Excellence, at Solectron Corporation. Prior to that, he served for 13 years in a number of staff and management positions at General Electric (GE) leading lean and six sigma initiatives to achieve continuous improvement in GE Medical Systems and GE Plastics. Ravi is a certified Black Belt and Master Black Belt in Six Sigma.
James Quella, Senior Managing Director, stated, “As we increase the focus on assisting our portfolio company management teams improve operational performance and create productivity through continuous improvement initiatives, we are delighted to add Ravi’s experience and capabilities to the Blackstone team. His extensive experience in implementing lean/six sigma initiatives in complex, international organizations across a number of industry sectors will be an invaluable asset to our team. Having Ravi’s leadership and implementation capabilities is essential for us as the size and depth of Blackstone’s acquisitions grow.”
About The Blackstone Group
The Blackstone Group, a global private investment and advisory firm, was founded in 1985. The firm has raised approximately $70 billion for alternative asset investing since its formation of which over $30 billion has been for private equity investing. The Private Equity Group is currently investing its fifth general private equity fund with commitments of more than $15 billion, and has over 80 experienced professionals with broad sector expertise. Blackstone’s other core businesses include Private Real Estate Investing, Corporate Debt Investing, Hedge Funds, Mutual Fund Management, Private Placement, Marketable Alternative Asset Management, and Investment Banking Advisory Services. Further information is available at http://www.blackstone.com.