Blackstone Hires Droga5 Chief Strategy Officer Jonny Bauer To Lead A New Brand Initiative

With nearly $650B assets under management, Blackstone sits atop the rapidly growing alternative investment industry. So what interest does the alternative investment mogul have in AdAge’s 2020 Creativity Awards Chief Strategy Officer of the Year, Jonny Bauer? According to an article from Forbes, Blackstone’s hiring of the former Droga5 Chief Strategy Officer is a commitment to “bring brand strategy more upstream as a part of the M&A process.” This strategic realignment from Blackstone highlights an interest to streamline value creation by addressing the rampant error that Bauer encapsulates as “A brand is a company’s reason for being, but is still too often an afterthought in the sequence of value creation.”

Blackstone’s global head of Private Equity, Joe Baratta, gives a glimpse of how this newfound commitment to brand may change Blackstone’s approach to acquisition and growth by stating, “The brand question is relevant for every single company we’re buying, not just branded companies… it has to do with what [is the] company we’re buying today, and where do we want it to go. And brand is essential in defining where it’s going to go, what we want to mean to our customer base, and how we want to evolve the company.”

As Blackstone’s investment thesis is evolving to focus on more early and growth-stage ventures, they are showing strategic agility, committing resources to PE growth verticals that are historically under-leveraged, specifically brand development.

Read more here on how Blackstone plans to bring brand development to the forefront of Private Equity value creation.