John Studzinski, dealmaker at private equity giant Blackstone, disproves the cliche that God and Mammon do not go together.So when did you start dabbling in God?" asks John Studzinski, after bouncing into the room with his morning apple.
I gasp. It's not a typical question from an investment banker. But then Studzinski is no typical banker.
One of Britain's best-known investment bankers for his 23 years at Morgan Stanley and his time as co-head of HSBC's investment banking division, American Studzinski is now a private equity capitalist as senior managing director of Blackstone Group.
However, his driving passion is his deep Catholic faith and the charitable endeavours it drives him to pursue.
His latest focus is his strong concern that contemporary composers are neglecting to compose new pieces for church congregations to sing. It led him to commission a holy trinity of composers through his Genesis Foundation charity to set to music Stay With Me, a prayer by Padre Pio, a Southern Italian shepherd's son who was canonised as St Pio of Pietrelcina by Pope John Paul II in 2002.
The three pieces, by composers James MacMillan, Roxana Panufnik and Will Todd are being premiered at a free concert that Genesis is putting on before 1,200 people at Westminster Cathedral on Tuesday.
Studzinski, 52, had the idea after stumbling upon the prayer at a funeral mass and seems as excited as if he had somehow found a solution to the global credit crisis. "It embodies many of the themes and messages that we pray after communion," he says.
"Padre Pio was very focused on prayer and this particular prayer for after communion does represent the gamut of his fascination with God but also his fascination with certain aspects of humanity throughout life."
Genesis, founded 10 years ago by Studzinski with the aim of nurturing young artists and cultivating new audiences, is funding the whole thing. So how much of that has come from Studzinski's pocket?
"All of it," he says. "A number of people have given us donations but it's my own money at this point. I contribute money to it annually."
How much has he put in? "It's not a lot," he says matter-of-factly. "It varies. Some years it has given away £1m to £2m and other years it is two or three times that."
Studzinski's faith was forged in a traditional Polish Catholic community north of Boston, Massachusetts, where his grandmother was involved in building the local church.
"I was always conscious of the fact Catholicism and Christianity were a bedrock in my life and it has stayed with me," he says.
Now he says he has come to a point where his Christianity is deeply tied up with facing and finding the dignity of human beings. It informs and directs his three philanthropic missions.
"There are three buckets," he says, "and all three have to do with dignity. The first time you nurture a young artist you are giving him dignity.
"The second bucket is the homeless, the marginalised, the business of the poor, the poverty business and that's all about dignity too. The third one is I am vice-chair of Human Rights Watch and that's again about human respect for humanity, justice and dignity. Human dignity, the respect for human life and dignity today, is where I think society and God overlap."
But how does all this connect with Studzinski's business life in the rough, tough world of banking? He doesn't see a conflict.
"One of the reasons I have remained in banking for almost 30 years is that I like the people side of it," he says.
"I like the element of advising people, the element of trust, the element of the theatre of business. It's fascinating because it's all about the human condition.
"There was an early part in my career after about 10 years into my time at Morgan Stanley where at my evaluation someone said: 'You are extremely good at client relationships. People really like you but it is very clear that if you like somebody you do very well but if you don't like somebody and don't respect them you are an absolute disaster'. I said: 'That's absolutely right'. And Morgan Stanley said: 'That's absolutely fine'."
"Business and financial services is about people, trust and clear-thinking advice. It's not always about being popular, it's about being truthful, giving. A lot of clients will say they have a love-hate relationship with me because I will be very honest.
"You say something people need to hear when they often don't want to hear it. Eighty per cent of the time that works and then 20 per cent of the time you might get broken glass, but it is trying to apply a set of values to a business environment, which I think we all do in our own way."
So how different are the values of private equity? He jolts slightly, losing a piece of his apple.
"The business of Blackstone is about being the world's leading alternative asset manager and financial adviser and private equity is one of those asset classes," he surmises. People use the term 'private equity' perhaps too loosely. But it's not any different because it's about dealing with people with similar values and the best and the brightest."
Studzinski believes private equity is evolving to cope with the credit crunch. "Having now seen six downturns and having seen the world for the last 30 years, I think it's clear that business models evolve," he says enigmatically.
"Blackstone now is focusing very much on its shareholders and where it is going to make money in the next five to 10 years. Clearly, we will have private equity as a big part of that but if it is exactly the same model as it was historically I will be very surprised."
He's even less comfortable when asked just how serious the credit crisis is.
"I think the truthful answer is that no one knows," he says. "There are still elements of discovery in terms of financial disclosure and I think we are still in the phase of data and denial.
"For the remaining part of 2008, we're going to have to clarify what financial institutions' balance sheets really look like and what that reflects in terms of solvency and accountable structures."
After that, he forecasts the beginning of "fairly aggressive good bank-bad bank mergers and consolidation" in 2009.
"You can't have it today," he says. "Think about the cascade state of monthly writeoffs. If you were a board member, would you seriously consider exposing your shareholders to an element of mystery balance sheets?"
Consolidation is desperately needed, he stresses, adding that it will be followed in 2010 by a reassessment of the current financial services regulatory infrastructure.
"There has to be another wave of consolidation," he cries. "There are too many banks in America, too many banks in the UK, too many in Germany and in Italy… we know all this."
Studzinski stops, perhaps worried that he sounds too preachy. Or maybe he's trying to figure out how to change the subject back to God and humanity. "We're going from Padre Pio to the credit crunch," he jokes. "You sort of wonder what he would make of all this."
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