Blackstone Hosts Current Global Business Fellows Students and Alumni at NYC Headquarters
Joseph Patrick Baratta II (B’93), global head of private equity and senior managing director at Blackstone, addressed Georgetown McDonough’s current Global Business Fellows (GBF) and approximately 15 alumni at the company’s New York headquarters on Wednesday, Jan. 22.
Baratta explained his work trajectory and how his career took a turn when he accepted an offer to move to London to help grow the company’s private equity business in the region.
“It happened to be a perfect moment to move to Europe as single currency was just established and the capital markets were liberating,” said Baratta. “This turned out to be a great career move as our team ended up building a reasonably successful business in Europe.”
Baratta reminded the GBF community the importance of making yourself distinctive as a professional and how his experience working abroad at Blackstone’s London office helped him achieve that goal.
“The economies that are growing are developing economies in Southeast Asia,” said Baratta. “In the private equity industry, the U.S. is a mature market.”
Among alumni in attendance was Sophia Yang (SFS‘17), currently working at Walker & Dunlop, who said, “Without the classes of intercultural communications and history of China I took as a Global Business Fellow, I would not have been able to perform my current job, which involves Chinese equity.”
Another alumna, Ana Mendoza (B’17), opined on the impact of the GBF program on her career when offered the chance to travel to Brazil for Lemann, Telles y Sicupira:
“The GBF program incentivized me to embrace a work opportunity in Brazil,” said Mendoza. “I spent over 3 months in the country learning the operations of the firm’s units and how these are so different abroad.”
Baratta lauded the Global Business Fellows program, which did not exist during his tenure at Georgetown.
“Georgetown University is uniquely placed to offer a more global perspective, taking advantage of what the Walsh School of Foreign Service has to offer along with the highly practical elements of the McDonough Undergraduate program, to create a broad vision of your future.”
At the closing of the event, Baratta reminded attendees of the importance of globalization and how the willingness to take risks and expose yourself to different cultures will better equip students for the jobs of tomorrow.
“Despite the current isolationist political climate the global nature/interconnection of businesses and industries is unstoppable,” said Baratta.
Before joining Blackstone, Baratta was with Tinicum Incorporated and McCown De Leeuw & Company. He also worked at Morgan Stanley in its mergers and acquisitions department. He graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown McDonough in 1993.
The Global Business Fellows Program is an innovative joint program between the McDonough School of Business and the Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS). The program combines fundamental principles of business with required coursework in international affairs, economics, and languages