Stephen Schwarzman

Stephen Allen Schwarzman (born February 14, 1947) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group, a global private equity firm he established in 1985 with Peter G. Peterson. Schwarzman was briefly chairman of President Donald Trump‘s Strategic and Policy Forum.

Schwarzman’s wealth is derived from the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm that had $991 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2023, according to the company’s website. Schwarzman owns about 19% of the publicly traded company, according to the 2022 annual report.

He sold Blackstone shares valued at about $675 million in the company’s June 2007 initial public offering, and has collected more than $7 billion in compensation and dividends since 2004, according to an analysis of company filings and Bloomberg data. The value of his cash investments is based on these proceeds, as well as other insider transactions, taxes and market performance.

Schwarzman owns almost 5.8 million shares and units of PJT Partners acquired as part of the company’s spin-off from Blackstone, according to its 2023 proxy statement. He gifted away his shares in Brixmor Property Group in 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Schwarzman signed the Giving Pledge in 2020.

Peter Rose, a Blackstone spokesman, said the billionaire declined to comment on his net worth.

Table of Contents

Biography

Early life and education

Schwarzman was raised in a Jewish family in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, the son of Arline and Joseph Schwarzman. His father owned Schwarzman’s, a former dry-goods store in Philadelphia, and was a graduate of the Wharton School.

Schwarzman’s first business was a lawn-mowing operation when he was 14 years old, employing his younger twin brothers, Mark and Warren, to mow while Stephen brought in clients.

Schwarzman attended the Abington School District in suburban Philadelphia and graduated from Abington Senior High School in 1965. He attended Yale University, where he was a member of senior society Skull and Bones and founded the Davenport Ballet Society. After graduating in 1969, he briefly served in the U.S. Army Reserve before attending Harvard Business School, where he graduated in 1972.

Investment career

Schwarzman’s first job in financial services was with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, an investment bank that merged with Credit Suisse in 2000. After business school, Schwarzman worked at the investment bank Lehman Brothers, became a managing director at age 31, and then head of global mergers and acquisitions. In 1985, Schwarzman and his boss, Peter Peterson, started The Blackstone Group, which initially focused on mergers and acquisitions. Blackstone would branch into business acquisition, real estate, direct lending, alternative assets, and now has some $500 billion in assets under management.

When Blackstone went public in June 2007, it revealed in a securities filing that Schwarzman had earned about $398.3 million in fiscal 2006. He ultimately received $684 million for the part of his Blackstone stake he sold in the IPO, keeping a stake then worth $9.1 billion. In the following years, his compensations increased even more: he received $350 million in 2007 and $702.4 million in 2008 – partly due to stock awards. His salary was $734.2 million in 2015, $425 US million in 2016 and $786 US million in 2017. In 2022, he was paid $253 million.

In June 2007, Schwarzman described his view on financial markets with the statement: “I want war, not a series of skirmishes… I always think about what will kill off the other bidder.”

In September 2011, Schwarzman was listed as a member of the international advisory board of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.