Blackstone Hires Mark Woodward as Senior Advisor

New York, September 19, 2007: The Blackstone Group today announced that Mark Woodward
has joined the firm’s private equity group as a Senior Advisor. Mr. Woodward has over 30 years
of experience in the information technology sector, with 23 years in sales/marketing and general management. Mark will be responsible primarily for sourcing and evaluating software and
information technology related transactions, and will be based in the Bay Area.

Most recently Mr. Woodward was the President and CEO of Serena Software where he led the
company through an extensive growth period. Mr. Woodward directed and navigated Serena
through several acquisitions and streamlined many complex infrastructure integration systems
resulting in Serena becoming among the most profitable software companies in its class. Before
Serena, Mr. Woodward was the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Live Picture
where he created a multi-channel sales organization. Before that, he was the Vice President of Sales and Operations at McAfee Associates.

Tony James, Blackstone’s President and Chief Operating Officer, said, “Mark’s deep knowledge
of the software sector and his experience in driving change and growth as a CEO and senior
executive will be an invaluable asset to Blackstone and many of our portfolio companies.”

About The Blackstone Group
The Blackstone Group is a leading global alternative asset manager and provider of financial
advisory services. Its alternative asset management businesses include the management of
corporate private equity funds, real estate opportunity funds, funds of hedge funds, mezzanine
funds, senior debt funds, proprietary hedge funds and closed-end mutual funds. The Blackstone
Group also provides various financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions
advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services.
www.blackstone.com

Contact:
John Ford
The Blackstone Group
Tel: 212 583 5559
Ford@blackstone.com