Blackstone appoints new CFO

The Blackstone Group has tapped Merrill Lynch executive Laurence Tosi as chief financial officer, replacing long-time finance chief Michael Puglisi. Tosi, chief operating officer for Merrill Lynch’s global markets and investment banking group, will assume his post at Blackstone in August or September and will serve as a member of the firm’s executive committee.
Prior to his appointment as chief operating officer in May of last year, Tosi spent three years as senior vice president and finance director for the investment bank’s 2,600 employee finance, accounting, and regulatory reporting unit. “Blackstone’s businesses continue to expand in new markets and with new products,” Blackstone cofounder Stephen Schwarzman said in a statement. “Laurence’s deep knowledge of financial services and finance will be a tremendous resource for us.”
An internal Merrill Lynch memo cited by Financial News credited Tosi with leading the firm’s merger of its investment management business BlackRock and acquiring its commodity trading business from US energy company Entergy-Koch in 2004. Tosi, 40, will be filling the shoes of a long-time firm fixture in Puglisi, who joined the firm in 1994, well before its meteoric rise to the top of the buyout world and public offering last year.
Puglisi, 57, will remain with the company to assist Tosi’s transition while also heading “special projects” for the firm. “In his 14 years at the firm, [Puglisi] has been an integral part of Blackstone’s transition from a small partnership to the largest independent alternative asset manager in the world,” Schwarzman said. “Tony [James, Blackstone’s president] and I are looking forward to his continuing advice and counsel.”
The hiring of Tosi, a Georgetown University graduate and former head of business development for US television network NBC, wouldn’t be the first time this year that Blackstone poached talent from a top tier investment bank. Earlier this month GSO Capital Partners, the Blackstone Group-owned alternative asset manager, tapped former JPMorgan leveraged finance head Tim Donahue to direct its Asia credit investment division.
Blackstone isn’t the only mega-buyout fund hiring a second generation CFO of late. Last July, the Carlyle Group hired Peter Nachtwey, formerly a senior partner with financial advisory firm Deloitte & Touche, to replace John Harris as chief financial officer for the firm.
Like Puglisi, Harris will not be severing ties with his former employer, but will be as a senior advisor to the firm.