Blackstone Taps McKinsey AI Leader Rodney Zemmel to Head Portfolio Operations

Blackstone Appoints Rodney Zemmel as Global Head of Portfolio Operations

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02/27/2025 - 10:15 AM

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Blackstone (NYSE: BX) announced today that Rodney Zemmel – a long-time Senior Partner at McKinsey, who served as the global leader of both McKinsey Digital and the firm’s AI Transformation initiatives – has been appointed Global Head of Portfolio Operations.

Mr. Zemmel will oversee Blackstone’s Portfolio Operations group, a team of operating executives that provides expertise and support to Blackstone’s portfolio companies across a wide range of functional areas to help create value for our investors. These include talent, data science and AI transformation, cybersecurity, group procurement, energy efficiency, operational excellence, and asset management – helping partner with company CEOs and Blackstone’s investment teams to promote success. Blackstone’s portfolio currently has 250 companies with $226 billion of annual revenue, collectively representing the equivalent to one of the largest Fortune 500 employers with approximately 700,000 employees.

Joe Baratta, Global Head of Blackstone Private Equity Strategies, said: “Blackstone has been an industry pioneer in helping our portfolio companies drive operational excellence and create value for our investors through our world-class portfolio operations team. We are pleased to welcome Rodney, who brings a wealth of experience across sectors and has proven to be a highly respected partner to CEOs in helping drive value in their businesses. We are particularly excited about leveraging his experience in helping our companies capture the potentially transformative opportunities created by advances in artificial intelligence.”

Rodney Zemmel added: “I look forward to joining Blackstone and closely partnering with its impressive team and portfolio of companies. The firm’s scale offers immense opportunities to drive continued growth and innovation at the businesses in which they invest. I’m excited to take on this new role and work with Blackstone to help them continue building great businesses and making excellent investment decisions.”

Mr. Zemmel joins Blackstone after nearly three decades at McKinsey. He was most recently the Global Leader of McKinsey Digital, which helps clients across a range of industries harness the power of data and AI, modernize core technology, build new digital business, and fuel growth. He also led Firmwide AI Transformation at McKinsey, an effort to best deploy AI innovations across the firm’s operations, including client service, technology, and other areas. Mr. Zemmel is a coauthor of the books Go Long: Why Long-Term Thinking Is Your Best Short-Term Strategy and the best-seller Rewired: The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI.

Previously, among other roles, he was the managing partner for McKinsey’s New York and Northeast offices in the United States – the firm’s largest office complex. Mr. Zemmel received his B.A. and M.A. in natural sciences and his Ph.D. in molecular biology from Trinity College, Cambridge University.

About Blackstone

Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to deliver compelling returns for institutional and individual investors by strengthening the companies in which we invest. Our more than $1.1 trillion in assets under management include global investment strategies focused on real estate, private equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, credit, real assets, secondaries and hedge funds. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow @blackstone on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Instagram.