Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray joined Blackstone in 1992 after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and spent his entire career building the real estate business from a small team into the world's largest real estate investment platform. Under his leadership, Blackstone Real Estate made landmark investments including Hilton Hotels (bought for $26 billion in 2007 and sold for over $14 billion profit — one of the most profitable real estate deals ever), Equity Office Properties, Extended Stay America, and the logistics platform that became Invitation Homes. Gray became President of Blackstone in 2018, positioning him as the likely eventual successor to founder Steve Schwarzman. His track record of building Blackstone's real estate empire from scratch is considered one of the great institution-building achievements in alternative asset management history.