The Blackstone Group hosts Inaugural Veterans Hiring Summit

On Monday, I had the pleasure of attending the Veterans Hiring Summit hosted by the Blackstone Group in New York City. In support of the Joining Forces initiative, the summit brought together seventy-eight of Blackstone’s portfolio companies to encourage them to contribute to Blackstone’s commitment to hire 50,000 American veterans over the next five years.

The summit covered a variety of topics pertaining to hiring veterans, such as the strengths of the veteran applicant pool, coordination with local VA offices, and the role of mentorship in ensuring a positive transition to civilian life for those who have served our nation. The event was designed to help hiring executives within corporations learn how to attract, hire, and retain veterans.

Joining Forces applauds Blackstone’s efforts in making sure our veterans find meaningful employment. They deserve jobs worthy of their talents – and thanks to organizations like the Blackstone Group this is becoming a reality for many veterans. Good civilian jobs not only help our veterans and military spouses manage the  transition from military to civilian life smoothly, but also demonstrate that our nation truly honors their service.

Currently, American companies have already committed to hire or train hundreds of thousands of veterans and military spouses over the next five years. With more than 1,000,000 veterans transitioning out of the military in the next five years and into the civilian workplace, this is a commendable achievement – but we are far from done. Together, we must work together and encourage businesses to make a commitment to hire our veterans and military spouses. They have given their service to our country, now it’s time for us to return the service. 

Colonel Rich Morales is Executive Director of Joining Forces