BlackRock Global Private Equity platform is expected to include approximately 20 professionals within the next year.
In this capacity, Thorne, Bitar and Puri will oversee the build-out and ensure the connectedness of private equity to BlackRock’s global investment platform, comprised of more than 1,500 investment professionals that will provide the team with insights into industry dynamics, companies and management teams.
They will report to Matthew Botein, managing director and head of BlackRock Alternative Investors (BAI).
Botein said with the addition of these private equity capabilities, alongside their private equity funds of funds and co-investment funds under the capable management of Russ Steenberg, they now have a complete set of private equity capabilities to offer to their clients.
Thorne, Bitar and Puri began working together at Merrill Lynch in 1990 and went on to found Merrill Lynch’s private equity business in 1994 where they remained until 2009 under Bank of America Corporation.
