- Michael Whitman is back in the game, surfacing at General Atlantic’s credit investing joint-venture with Iron Park Capital, after a dispute with his former employer, Blackstone, over a non-compete.
- Two sources familiar with the move tell Insider that Whitman settled into his new role at Iron Park in early December, marking a cease-fire with Blackstone.
- Representatives of Iron Park, Blackstone, and General Atlantic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Sometimes it’s good to let bygones be bygones.
At least that’s what The Blackstone Group realized when it threw down its arms last month and let a former credit executive, Michael Whitman, start work at Iron Park Capital, two people familiar with the transition told Insider.
The truce, which finalized in early December, was tipped to Insider by two people who know Whitman and his move was subsequently confirmed through a quick check of his online biography.
Whitman had touched off a stir in the Blackstone alumni community when he departed the firm in the summer of 2020, only to find that his former employer wanted to enforce a non-compete against him.
At the time, Whitman was set to join General Atlantic, a growth-equity firm that was forming a joint venture with Iron Park Capital in seeking debt investment opportunities throughout the pandemic.
Blackstone, which already saw other senior credit executives depart, including Tripp Smith, who co-founded Iron Park, was having none of it. The firm reached out to General Atlantic, had some words, and Whitman wasn’t hired, stranded in a strange sort of limbo.
“This was simply about a blatant violation of a non-solicitation agreement signed in exchange for considerable economics,” Kate Holderness, a spokeswoman for Blackstone, told Bloomberg last summer.
“Many former employees have gone on to great success after leaving the firm and we have never had such a dispute in our 35-year history,” Holderness added. “We made it clear to General Atlantic that our objective was never to interfere with the successful launch of their venture.”
Today, Whitman is involved with the venture, Atlantic Park, which carries his online biography as one of its team members. It’s unclear what went on behind the scenes that led Blackstone to change its stance on enforcing the non-compete.
An Iron Park representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. We’ve also put in a line to Blackstone and will update this story if we hear back.
The move came on the heels of Blackstone announcing in early November that it would rebrand its credit investing division after the three top executives who built the unit departed. The credit group, which Blackstone bought in 2008, had been named GSO, after Bennett Goodman, Smith, and Doug Ostrover.
Today the group is called Blackstone Credit.
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