$37B Blackstone Tac Opps Unit Has New Leader
Blackstone announced several promotions within its Blackstone Tactical Opportunities division, appointing Chris James as global head of Tactical Opportunities, succeeding David Blitzer, who will assume the role of chairman at year-end.
James is a founding member and current COO of the $37 billion unit. Additionally, two other promotions were announced: Jas Khaira as head of Tactical Opportunities Americas and Qasim Abbas as head of Tactical Opportunities International.
James has been instrumental in launching several new businesses at Blackstone including its insurance platform, growth investing platform, and private equity strategy for individual investors. Prior to Tactical Opportunities, he had been involved in the execution of Blackstone strategic initiatives, including the firm’s IPO, and its investments in GSO (now Blackstone Credit and Insurance) and Strategic Partners.
Abbas currently leads Tac Opps’ European business and joined Blackstone in 2012. Khaira has been at Blackstone for two decades and leads Tac Opps digital infrastructure investments. Both Abbas and Khaira are founding members of Tac Opps.
The Tactical Opportunities platform was launched in 2012 — a strategy the firm pioneered — to invest across private investment opportunities outside of traditional private equity and private credit.
“Tac Opps is thriving in the current environment, and we are confident CJ, Jas, and Qasim will continue its strong momentum,” said Steve Schwarzman, co-founder, chairman, and CEO, and Jon Gray, president & COO of Blackstone. “We are also quite pleased that David – who has done a world-class job building the Tac Opps franchise from scratch – will continue as chairman of the business.”
The leadership moves follow the record close of Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Fund IV. Including other single-investor vehicles pursuing the same strategy, the combined BTO IV platform is currently expected to have nearly $10 billion of new capital in its fourth fundraising vintage that is substantially higher than the BTO III platform and the largest-ever vintage of its kind.
Recent investments in BTO IV include CoreWeave, a specialized provider of critical cloud infrastructure pioneering the AI revolution, and the music royalty platform Hipgnosis.
Pictured: Chris James