On June 9, 2008, The Blackstone Group L.P. announced that Laurence A. Tosi will be appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of its general partner, Blackstone Group Management L.L.C. Michael A. Puglisi, Blackstone’s current Chief Financial Officer, will remain a Senior Managing Director and a member of senior management.<br />(c) Mr. Tosi, age 40, served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Global Markets and Investment Banking Group of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., a provider of capital markets, advisory and wealth management services, from May 2007 to June 2008. In that role, Mr. Tosi was responsible for the day to day operational management of that group’s capital markets, trading and investment banking businesses. Prior to that, he served as the Senior Vice President, Finance Director and Principal Accounting Officer of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. from November 2004 to May 2007, responsible for Merrill Lynch’s global 2,600-person finance organization, including worldwide accounting, regulatory reporting, budgeting and corporate development. From July 2001 to November 2004, Mr. Tosi was Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Business Finance at Merrill Lynch where he managed Merrill Lynch’s global finance organization as the Chief Financial Officer of all of the firm’s global businesses before assuming the additional responsibilities of Finance Director in November 2004.