Blackstone Hires Tech Exec With Wall Street Resume

Blackstone Group has hired John Stecher from Barclays to serve as chief technology officer at the world’s largest private equity firm.

Stecher will help advise Blackstone’s investing teams and portfolio companies on tech-related matters, according to a statement Monday from the firm. He will start February 24, replacing Bill Murphy, who will continue to serve as a senior advisor to Blackstone.

The alternative investment manager, which has $571 billion of assets, is turning to someone with years of experience on Wall Street to oversee its global technology organization, according to the statement. Before serving as CTO and chief innovation officer at Barclays, Stecher filled senior technology and engineering roles at Goldman Sachs Group.

“Technology and innovation is a strategic priority for the firm,” Blackstone’s chief financial officer, Michael Chae, said in the statement. Stecher — who worked across all business units at Barclays as well as Goldman’s capital markets, technology, and consumer finance divisions — will report to Chae.

“Blackstone has invested significantly in technology to better run its business and serve investors while leveraging that expertise to inform its investing teams,” Stecher said in the statement. “The scale and breadth of the platform offers a unique opportunity.”

Co-founded by Steve Schwarzman in 1985, Blackstone’s global investment strategies include private equity, credit, real estate, and real assets, as well as public debt and equities. Blackstone’s president Jon Gray said in the statement that “technological innovation” has been an important driver of the New York-based firm’s success.

Stecher’s “extensive experience and engineering expertise will expand our leadership position in this critical area for our firm and portfolio companies,” Gray said. He will build on the “considerable accomplishments” of the firm’s technology teams under Murphy, Gray added in the statement.

[II Deep Dive: The ‘Odd’ Part of the Economy That Baffles Steve Schwarzman]

As part of his experience on Wall Street, Stecher was a “critical” member of the Goldman executive team that helped get Marcus, the firm’s consumer banking group, off the ground, according to the statement. He helped take Marcus “from initial concept and first line of code to their first customer,” Blackstone said.

Separately on Monday, another global alternative asset manager, GCM Grosvenor, announced the hiring of a CTO.

The Chicago-based firm, which manages $57 billion in assets, said that it hired Eric Levin from PEAK6 Investments to drive its tech strategy. Levin had worked at PEAK6 for 13 years, leading its technology and business strategy, according to the statement.