American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist
Laurence A. Tosi (born 1968) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Tosi is currently a Managing Partner of WestCap Group, the investment firm he founded. In October 2020, it was reported that Tosi's firm was in the final stages of raising a $750 million fund and had received about $1.2 billion of investor interest to date.[1] Prior to dedicating his time to WestCap, Tosi served as the chief financial officer of Airbnb and of The Blackstone Group and held several roles at BofA Merrill Lynch.[2]
Early life and education
Laurence Tosi was born on February 8, 1968.[3] He put himself through school to get his bachelor's degree in 1990 and JD./M.B.A. in 1994 from Georgetown University, which he called a financial "struggle."[4] Tosi has become a major donor to the school and to the 1789 scholarship fund.[4]
Business career
After law school, Tosi practiced litigation and corporate law at Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine; and then went to work for General Electric as the director of business development for GE's CNBC and NBC divisions.[4][5] He then worked for Merrill Lynch as chief operating officer of their trading and investment banking division.[4] In June 2008, he became CFO of the Blackstone Group.[4] In January 2011, Tosi was offered the job of CFO at Apple by Steve Jobs, but turned it down. Apple had a large amount of cash reserves, and felt that Tosi would bring acquisition experience.[6] Before joining Airbnb, Tosi was on the short list of Blackstone senior executives being groomed to take over the role of Chief Executive when Stephen Schwarzman retires.[7]
Tosi served as CFO at Airbnb from July 2015 until he left in February 2018. He left the company to dedicate a greater amount of time and energy to his investment fund, Weston Capital Partners, and to dedicate additional time to the several boards of which he was a member.[8]
