Blackstone Executive to Address Georgetown McDonough Graduates, May 17

Joseph Patrick Baratta II (B’93), global head of private equity and senior managing director at Blackstone, will address the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business Class of 2019 on Friday, May 17, at 3 p.m. on Healy Lawn.

Baratta joined Blackstone, one of the world’s leading investment firms, in 1998 and eventually moved to London to help establish its corporate private equity business in Europe. Over his more than 20 years at Blackstone, he has led many of the firm’s most significant private equity transactions. Since 2012, Baratta has served as the firm’s global head of private equity. He also is a trustee of the Tate Foundation and serves on the board of Year Up, an organization focused on youth employment.

His service to Georgetown University has been substantial. Currently, Baratta is a member of the Georgetown University Board of Directors, McDonough’s Board of Advisors, and the Georgetown McDonough Global Business Initiative Advisory Board. In 2016, Baratta and his wife, Abigail (F’96), established the Baratta Endowed Global Business Education Fund to support global business consulting projects for undergraduate students and the Baratta Endowed Chair in Global Business, which is held by Professor Ricardo Ernst.

During the ceremony, Dean Paul Almeida will present Baratta with the Dean’s Medal in recognition of his service to the school.

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.

See the 2019 Commencement website for more information about the schedule of events and rain plan for the ceremony.