John Winn is an Operating Partner at Brightstar Capital Partners, where he works with portfolio companies and investment teams to create value through technology, data and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Prior to joining Brightstar, John was a Senior Partner and Global Industry Leader for Private Equity at IBM Consulting. There he built IBM’s global private equity practice from the ground up, led the development of agentic AI solutions designed to reduce SG&A costs across middle-market portfolios, and authored the firm’s playbooks for technology-driven value creation after an acquisition.
Previously, John was a Managing Director in Portfolio Operations at Blackstone, where he led technology and AI transformation across the private equity portfolio. In that role he led a firm-wide cloud migration and optimization program, negotiated major technology partnerships, and reshaped the firm’s approach to technology due diligence. He served as a trusted advisor to investment teams, portfolio company boards and senior management. Before Blackstone, John was a Principal Architect at Amazon Web Services, where he established a technical practice dedicated to private equity portfolio companies.
John began his career in energy and commodities technology, holding product, risk and leadership roles at Amphora, Eka, Finastra and EDF Trading, where he helped scale software businesses and move legacy platforms to the cloud.
John received a Master of Science in Cybersecurity from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in Applied Statistics from Swinburne University of Technology, a Master of Arts (Research) from the University of Sydney, and bachelor’s degrees in Information Technology and Business from Queensland University of Technology.