Blackstone’s debt unit GSO Capital Partners, having lost the ‘O’ and the ‘S’, has now (at least partially) lost the ‘G’, with the news that co-founder Bennett Goodman will step down from his full-time role with the firm and its board of directors at the end of this year.
Goodman will stay on as an advisor. Co-founder Doug Ostrover (‘O’) left in 2015 to set up business development company manager Owl Rock Capital Partners with former KKR executive Marc Lipschultz, and the third founder, Tripp Smith (‘S’), left in the middle of last year amid reports he was planning to launch a new credit firm.
Amid these departures, Dwight Scott has emerged to take the reins of the business on a day to day basis. The former head of Blackstone’s energy investment platform was appointed president of GSO in 2017.
Goodman, 62, co-founded GSO in 2005 and led its sale to Blackstone three years later. It has since become one of the largest credit investment businesses in the world, with strategies covering direct lending, mezzanine, rescues, distressed debt, CLOs and energy debt.
Goodman said he would remain a senior adviser to the firm, assisting the direct lending business and engaging in new capital formation and LP and investor relations as well as participating in deal origination, investment committees and regulatory matters. He also announced plans to launch a family office.
“Having successfully transitioned the business to Dwight and a strong leadership team over the past several years, this is the right time for me to step back from the day to day management of the organisation,” said Goodman.
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