In the summer of 1943, while Allied forces battled across Europe, a different kind of war room hummed with activity in Burbank, California. Here, in a hastily constructed building, a team of engineers was about to change the course of aviation history.

This was Lockheed's top-secret Skunkworks project, led by the brilliant engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson. Their mission? Build America's first jet fighter. Their timeline? 150 days.

Fast forward 80 years, and the financial world stands at a similar crossroads. As artificial intelligence reshapes the landscape of global finance, Wall Street titans find themselves racing to innovate. But what if the key to outpacing the disruptors lies in a dusty playbook from World War II?

Steve Jobs once said, "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." In today's rapidly evolving financial sector, this distinction has never been more critical. The question is: will traditional financial institutions lead the AI revolution, or will they be left following in the wake of tech giants and nimble startups?

Imagine a world where a single algorithm could make or break a billion-dollar deal. Where the right data scientist could be worth their weight in gold-plated servers. Welcome to the high-stakes race of building AI teams in high finance, where firms like Blackstone are betting big on brains that can merge Wall Street wisdom with Silicon Valley wizardry.

In 2021, Blackstone Group made a power move that turned heads across the financial world. They brought on board Matt Katz, a data science heavyweight with a Ph.D. from MIT, as their new Managing Director and Head of Data Science. But Katz isn't just another ivy league hire – he's the tip of the spear in a revolution that's reshaping the landscape of investment. His mission: to build a team that can harness the power of AI to predict market trends, optimize portfolios, and uncover hidden investment opportunities.