Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. HOMEPAGE

Wall Street can't keep hold of its top execs

Blackstone Group CFO Laurence Tosi is set to leave the private-equity giant for tech startup Airbnb, according to a Bloomberg report.

Advertisement

Tosi has been with Blackstone since 2008, according to the report. In that time, the firm more than doubled its assets under management to $333 billion.

At Airbnb, he would replace Andrew Swain, who left his role as CFO a year ago.

Stephen Steve Schwarzman
Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman. Brendan McDermid/Reuters

This is not the first Wall Street financial chief to ditch the industry for tech.

In March, Morgan Stanley's CFO, Ruth Porat, made headlines when she left that investment bank for Google.

Advertisement

And it's not just the CFOs, either. 

In the past several years, all of these Wall Street bankers and deal makers have jumped ship for tech:

  • Mike Cavanagh: The former Carlyle Group co-chief operating officer left that firm to become Comcast's CFO. Before Carlyle, Cavanagh coheaded corporate and investment banking at JPMorgan. 
  • Anthony Noto: The former Goldman Sachs tech banker is now CFO at Twitter.
  • Imran Khan: The former Credit Suisse tech banker is now Snapchat's chief strategy officer.

Bankers are being drawn to Silicon Valley riches as investment banking becomes a less lucrative profession. Google is paying Porat as much as $70 million in salary and bonuses, filings show.

Advertisement

"Tosi has gone from 'Hard Times' to 'Field of Dreams,' if this were the movies," said Richard Stein, a partner at Wall Street search firm Options Group. It's "a good choice for him and Airbnb."

Business Insider has reached out to Blackstone for comment. Request for comment to Airbnb was not returned.

Private Equity
Advertisement
Close icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

Jump to

  1. Main content
  2. Search
  3. Account