Natacha Jamar: Women in PE, class of 2024

Natacha Jamar did not know private equity was the place for her until she got there. Now a senior managing director in Blackstone’s corporate private equity group, she started her career as an analyst in 2009, after a helpful nugget of parental advice.

“I was chatting with my dad, who said Blackstone is a great firm, you should go there,” she explains. “I did my summer internship, and I was totally terrified for the first couple of weeks. But that’s where I realized this is what I wanted to do.”

Being surrounded by intellectually curious people who enjoy learning how various businesses operate cemented Blackstone as the firm for Jamar. From the get-go, colleagues also wanted her to voice her opinions, even when she didn’t necessarily feel qualified to give one.

“You learn in private equity; you lose more deals than you win. That’s what’s tough”

Jamar has certainly gained experience since. She has been involved in many of Blackstone’s investments, such as healthcare staffing outsourcer ICS, luxury brand Versace and in the $6 billion take-private of visitor attraction operator Merlin Entertainments.

She was promoted to senior managing director in January, and is the first and only female SMD in the firm’s corporate private equity business outside of the US (she’s based in London).

As the most senior woman within Blackstone’s European PE investment team, she acts as a mentor to women in the private equity business and through Level 20, an organization focused on improving gender diversity in the industry.

Several diversity initiatives are close to her heart, but as a mother of two, family leave policies have made the biggest impact for her personally.

“My mom, who was a corporate lawyer, had two weeks off both before and after she had me,” Jamar explains. “She quit after those two weeks as it just wasn’t possible to go back to work that quickly.” Blackstone’s policy is 20 weeks.

On what the industry has taught her, Jamar can sum it up in one word: resilience. “I feel like a lot of people who come to private equity have in some ways succeeded in everything they’ve done in their lives, maybe been the top of their class,” she says. “You learn in private equity; you lose more deals than you win. That’s what’s tough. Especially when you put as much as we do into deals, all the hours that go into it. That teaches you resilience.”

Resilience has its perks outside work too. Jamar ran the Seville marathon in under three hours – a very impressive feat. She still enjoys longer trail runs and getting outdoors.

“I also take the boys out on a running stroller on the weekends,” she says. “Pushing that thing up a hill, while making up stories and occasionally singing, is significantly harder than marathon training. It’s a lot of fun.”