The Blackstone Group has hired a stable of analysts for its recently formed structured finance group, Blackstone Debt Advisors. The addition of the four credit analysts and two financial analysts follows the hiring of Dean Criares earlier this year from CIBC World Markets as Blackstone seeks to manage a series of collateralized loan obligations. "Blackstone has been intrigued by the corporate debt markets for the last five years, and we have now established a group looking to invest in the senior secured leveraged loan asset class," said Criares, a managing director at Blackstone. He declined comment on whether Blackstone is currently working on a CLO vehicle.
Dan McMullen and Doug Paolillo have joined from CIBC as senior investment analysts, where along with Criares they worked on structured investment vehicles managed by Trimaran Advisors. Karen Lau, meanwhile, has been brought on board as an investment analyst from Banc of America Securities. The three will evaluate the primary and secondary markets across multiple industries. Ryan Gorman has been hired as a credit analyst from Credit Suisse First Boston and Scott Kupersmith as controller- an internal move within Blackstone. Finally Bonnie Gleason from CIBC is the portfolio administrator. Criares, explaining the decision to enter the fray now, said "While many CLOs are in the market, it is still developing and we expect continued growth, as banks move away from their role as lenders and embrace their roles as distributors."