Dealmakers of the Year:
Equities: Joshua Ford Bonnie, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
When Simpson Thacher first assigned corporate partner Joshua Ford Bonnie to lead The Blackstone Group L.P.’s historic initial public offering two years ago, the client was not exactly thrilled. “He looks like he’s 18,” says Blackstone general counsel Robert Friedman about his first impression of Bonnie, then a 35-year-old second-year partner. “I went to the chairman of the firm’s executive committee [Philip "Pete" Ruegger III] and told him that he had to convince me that [Bonnie] was the right guy. I said, ‘Is he really the guy for a bet-the-company transaction?’”
