Welcome back to another episode of Goldman Sachs Exchanges, great investors.

I'm your host, Allison Mass, Chairman of Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs.

And today I'm delighted to be joined by Joe Barata,

who runs the private equity business at Blackstone,

one of the world's largest alternative asset managers

with $1 trillion in assets under management.

Joe's career has mirrored the growth of the private equity industry from what started out as

a cottage industry in the 1990s to the trillion dollar industry it is today.

Joe joined Blackstone in 1998, established Blackstone's private equity business in Europe in the early to mid-2000s and has served as Blackstone's global head of

private equity since 2012. We'll be talking to Joe about the evolution of the

private equity industry, the investment environment today, and what he's learned from building

one of the world's largest private equity businesses.

So Joe, welcome to the program.

Thank you for having me, Allison.

Great to be here.

So I want to start with your early years and career,

but I want to rewind the clock back

to talk about your life before private equity.

You grew up in Sacramento, California as a son of a bodybuilder.

Your dad, also Joseph Barada, was a fitness enthusiast and businessman who opened up one of the

first health clubs in California,

hosting bodybuilding contests that attracted people like Arnold Schwarzenegger

...