Blackstone Hires 100,000 Veterans, Hits Goal

Blackstone Hires 100,000 Veterans, Hits Goal

The Blackstone Group announced on Nov. 11 that it reached its goal of having its companies hire 100,000 military veterans and spouses of service members over the previous eight years.

Military veterans have higher rates of unemployment and suicide than civilians with no service background. A presentation by Michelle Obama to the Business Roundtable in 2013 included information about the frequency of veteran suicides that led to Blackstone's initiative to invest in veterans and their spouses.

"I was sitting in the front row, and she was talking about 22 military people per day killing themselves, and asking the business community to make a five-year commitment to help do something about it," Blackstone founder and CEO Steve Schwarzman said. 
"I was really affected by it because it’s such a big deal to serve, as opposed to being in the private sector." 

Following the event, Schwarzman, who served in the Army Reserves, flew to New York and before he reached his apartment, sent a note to Obama that Blackstone was committed to hiring 50,000 veterans over the next five years.

It was a highly unusual thing for Schwarzman to do, he said. It was not typically how Blackstone makes decisions so the management committee was very surprised the next day.

The company then worked with government officials at the Departments of Defense and Labor, as well as Obama and Jill Biden, to build an infrastructure for connecting vets with Blackstone jobs. Also, it created an affinity group for veterans within Blackstone and worked with portfolio companies on onboarding and integration issues.

Blackstone hit its 50,000 goals within four years, they decided to do it again.

Approximately 560,000 people are employed by the firm's portfolio companies (non-real estate). Recent acquisitions include Allstate Life Insurance and Bumble.

As for the future, Blackstone plans not to set a new veteran hiring goal, but instead to fold the initiative into a program called "Career Pathways" that will help its portfolio companies find talent beyond traditional sources.