John Studzinski is an American-born British investment banker and philanthropist. He will be in conversation with Professor Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, on the topic of 'the art of listening'.

This event is free and open to members of the University of Oxford. 

Speaker bio

John J. Studzinski CBE is Vice Chairman, Investor Relations and Business Development and Senior Managing Director of Blackstone where he holds special responsibility for sovereign and institutional investor relationships, as well as important and influential pools of international family capital.

Mr. Studzinski joined Blackstone in 2006 as Global Head of Blackstone Advisory Partners, which he ran for a decade. A graduate of Bowdoin College, he also has an MBA from the University of Chicago. He joined Morgan Stanley in New York in 1980 and since then has spent much of his career in London, where he served as Head of European Investment Banking and Deputy Chairman of Morgan Stanley International before moving to HSBC in 2003 as a member of the Group Management Board.

Mr. Studzinski is a Non-Executive Director of the Home Office of the UK Government and serves as Chair of the Risk, Audit and Compliance Committee in addition to chairing the Prime Minister's Business Against Modern Slavery initiative. He is Founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, a UK-based charitable foundation that nurtures the careers of outstanding young artists, and Chairman of Create London. Mr. Studzinski serves on the U.S. boards of The J. Paul Getty Trust, Scholars at Risk, Tate Americas Foundation, Signature Theatre, and the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE).

He is Director Emeritus of Human Rights Watch and is Co-founder and Chair of the Arise Foundation, which partners with local networks to stop human trafficking. Mr. Studzinski is also Vice Chairman of The Atlantic Council and a member of The Council on Foreign Relations.

Mr. Studzinski holds the Papal honors of Knight of the Order of St. Gregory and Knight Commander of Saint Sylvester and in 2004 was awarded the Beacon Prize for Philanthropy. He received the Prince of Wales Medal for Arts Philanthropy and the Prince of Wales Ambassador Award for his work with the homeless. In 2007 Mr. Studzinski was voted Banker of the Year by The Bank of England. In 2008, the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List named him Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the Arts and Charity.