Blackstone Growth COO moves to BAAM

Brian Sauvigne, who has worked as chief operating officer on Blackstone’s growth platform, is moving into the firm’s GP stakes business, sources told Buyouts.

The move comes as Blackstone Growth is in the process of raising its second fund, targeting $7 billion to $8 billion.

Vincent Letteri, senior managing director on the Growth team, will take over some of the COO responsibilities, sources said.

Sauvigne will move into an investment role with the staking business, which is part of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management. Investing, as opposed to a more managerial role, is more inline with Sauvigne’s background, the spokesperson said.

Prior to joining Blackstone last year, Sauvigne worked in investment banking at Macquarie and Morgan Stanley.

Blackstone closed its second GP stakes fund last year on $5.6 billion, expanding on investor support from the debut pool, which closed on $3.3 billion in 2014. The group backed private equity firms like GTCR, Nautic Partners and Great Hill Partners.

The Growth team, led by Jon Korngold, continues to raise its second fund, which held a first close earlier this year. That team closed its debut growth pool on $4.5 billion last year.