The Blackstone Group has announced that Tom Kelly has joined the firm as a managing director in its corporate advisory group to head a new initiative to provide private capital fundrais
The Blackstone Group has announced that Tom Kelly has joined the firm as a managing director in its corporate advisory group to head a new initiative to provide private capital fundraising services to businesses and corporations.
These fundraisings will include private placements of equity and debt for privately-held and publicly-traded corporate clients. Kelly will be based in Blackstone’s Menlo Park office.
‘We believe that this is a very opportune time to enter this business,’ says Ivan Brockman, a senior managing director at Blackstone and head of the firm’s West Coast advisory business. ‘Current markets are dislocated, or even shut, for conventional public financings. Clients are looking to their advisers to help them raise capital in innovative and non traditional ways. We expect that this will be both an area of growth and opportunity for Blackstone.’
‘I am delighted to be joining the exceptional team of professionals at Blackstone,’ adds Kelly. ‘Its independence, reputation and global capabilities uniquely position it to assist corporate clients in accessing the private capital markets.’
Kelly was previously a managing director at Kema Partners, which provides investment banking and advisory services to emerging growth companies. Before that, he headed the private capital group at Montgomery and prior to that, he headed West Coast private equity placements for Banc of America Securities in San Francisco. He was previously an investment banker focused on private equity placements with Merrill Lynch and Robertson Stephens.
