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Blackstone BDCs Appoint President and Chief Operating Officer

Blackstone Private Credit Fund, a non-traded business development company sponsored by private equity giant Blackstone (NYSE: BX), has appointed Carlos Whitaker as president and Kate Rubenstein as chief operating officer.

Blackstone Private Credit Fund, a non-traded business development company sponsored by private equity giant Blackstone (NYSE: BX), has appointed Carlos Whitaker as president and Kate Rubenstein as chief operating officer. Whitaker and Rubenstein will serve in identical capacities at Blackstone Secured Lending Fund, a BDC formerly known as Blackstone/GSO Secured Lending Fund.

The BDCs are part of Blackstone’s global direct lending platform, Blackstone Alternative Credit Advisors LP, Blackstone’s fastest growing segment with $163 billion in assets under management. According to the company, the executives “will play critical roles in sourcing investment opportunities, supporting portfolio companies and scaling the firm’s business development companies.

Whitaker previously served in the investment banking division at Credit Suisse as head of New York and co-head of EMEA equity advisory sales. As a senior salesperson, he was responsible for developing relationships with large institutional clients, growing revenues, selling initial public offerings and secondary offerings, and cross-selling the bank’s other products.

Whitaker began his career at Credit Suisse in 2000 as an analyst and sits on the boards of New York for McCombs and Rising Stars Capital Management.

Rubenstein, who will also serve as a managing director at Blackstone Credit, was previously with the Blackstone portfolio operations group where she focused on building networks and expanding access to resources for portfolio companies across Blackstone business units. Prior to that, she created and led the GSO Advantage platform (now Blackstone Credit Advantage). Prior to Blackstone, she spent 10 years with GE Capital. Rubenstein is on the Blackstone Charitable Foundation Leadership Council and on the board of Let’s Get Ready.

In addition, Chris Sullivan was appointed as senior managing director at Blackstone Credit, joining from Barclays where he served as global head of financial sponsors, responsible for driving the business that managed relationships with private equity clients globally. Sullivan previously served as a managing director in financial sponsors at Lehman Brothers until 2008. He currently serves on the board of the Bryn Mawr Hospital Foundation.

Blackstone Private Credit Fund is the industry’s first perpetual-life BDC, and has raised $6.9 billion in the public offering, as of July 2021. As of July 31, 2021, the BDC’s aggregate NAV was $6.1 billion, the fair value of its investment portfolio was $14 billion, and it had $6.7 billion of debt outstanding.

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