By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
BOSTON (Reuters) -John McCormick, who has led Blackstone Group’s $81 billion hedge fund unit since 2018, plans to leave the firm, two sources said on Monday.
As the world’s biggest hedge fund investor, Blackstone backs new hedge funds, invests alongside hedge funds, buys majority stakes in them and offers internally run hedge funds to clients like pension funds and foreign governments.
A Blackstone representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McCormick told the firm of his plans to leave last week and plans to stay on for a time to ensure a smooth transition, the sources said.
Since McCormick took the helm of Blackstone’s Hedge Fund Solutions unit known as BAAM in January 2018 all businesses have expanded.
In January Blackstone hired Joe Dowling, a former endowment chief at Brown University, to work alongside McCormick as co-head of BAAM.
The Wall Street Journal first reported news of McCormick’s departure.
McCormick, who has worked at Blackstone for nearly 17 years, is the latest senior executive to announce plans to leave the storied private equity firm’s hedge fund unit. In the last months Gideon Berger, who led its funds-of-funds business; Brett Condron, who was head of individual investor solutions; and Scott Soussa, who headed the hedge fund and private equity stakes business, have departed.
In January 2018 Blackstone promoted McCormick, who came to Blackstone from McKinsey & Co, to replace Tom Hill, who had spent nearly two decades growing Blackstone into the world’s biggest hedge fund investor.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Editing by Franklin Paul and Mark Porter)
