Blackstone vs StepStone Group

Todd Parsons Named CEO of Blackstone-Owned Prodege

Todd Parsons, former Chief Product Officer at Criteo, will become CEO of Prodege, a Blackstone-backed consumer insights firm, starting October 1. Prodege operates a panel of over 125 million consumers and powers loyalty programs like Swagbucks, MyPoints, and InboxDollars. Parsons is expected to leverage his AI expertise from Criteo, where he oversaw the development of AI tools including a Model Context Protocol, to enhance Prodege's market research offerings. The appointment marks a significant leadership change for the company, which provides consumer feedback to CPG brands, commerce companies, and game developers.

• Todd Parsons has been named CEO of Prodege, starting October 1.
• Prodege is backed by Blackstone and runs a consumer panel of over 125 million members.
• Prodege powers loyalty programs for Swagbucks, MyPoints, and InboxDollars.

Blackstone Launches Inside Blackstone Podcast and Announces Acquisition of Flow Control Holdings

Blackstone has launched a new podcast 'Inside Blackstone' and announced the acquisition of Flow Control Holdings, a leader in data center liquid cooling components. Additionally, a strategic investment in Korean logistics development with ESR was announced.

Simplilearn and CMU Launch LLM and Multi-Agent Systems Program

Simplilearn, a global digital upskilling platform, has partnered with Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science Executive Education to launch 'Build With LLMs: From Context Engineering to Multi-Agent Systems'. This 8-week live online program is designed for technical professionals to develop skills in building LLM-powered applications and multi-agent systems. The curriculum covers LLM foundations, context engineering, reasoning, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), tool calling, Model Context Protocol (MCP), multi-agent system design, and AI reliability and security. It includes hands-on projects, case studies, and capstone projects. The program reflects growing enterprise demand for multi-agent systems, citing Deloitte's 2026 State of AI report predicting that 74% of companies will use multi-agent systems moderately within two years. Learners will work with frameworks like LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, and OpenAI. Upon completion, participants receive a verified digital certificate from Carnegie Mellon University.

• Simplilearn and Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science Executive Education launched an 8-week live online program.
• The program is titled 'Build With LLMs: From Context Engineering to Multi-Agent Systems'.
• The curriculum includes RAG, tool calling, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and multi-agent system design.

8-K Financial Filing Analysis for StepStone Group (2026-09-08)

StepStone Group Inc. reported the voting results from its 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders held on September 8, 2026. A strong quorum of 108,711,940 votes (representing approximately 90.1% of the 120,676,668 total eligible votes across Class A and Class B common stock) participated in the meeting. Stockholders approved all three corporate proposals submitted by management. All seven director nominees—Monte M. Brem, Valerie G. Brown, Scott W. Hart, David F. Hoffmeister, Thomas Keck, Steven R. Mitchell, and Anne L. Raymond—were re-elected to one-year terms expiring at the 2027 annual meeting. Furthermore, stockholders ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the independent auditor for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2027, and approved the advisory resolution on named executive officer compensation (Say-on-Pay) with substantial support.

• Shareholder turnout reached 90.1% of eligible voting power, with 108,711,940 votes cast out of 120,676,668 total outstanding Class A (82,288,907) and Class B (38,387,761) shares.
• All seven director nominees were successfully elected to one-year terms expiring in 2027, led by high approval votes for Thomas Keck (100.04M votes FOR) and Scott W. Hart (99.97M votes FOR).
• Ernst & Young LLP was ratified as independent auditor for FY2027 (98.47M FOR), and the executive compensation (Say-on-Pay) proposal passed comfortably with 94.88M votes in favor.