Stephen A. Schwarzman

Schwarzman was born in Philadelphia on February 14, 1947, and grew up in nearby Abington, Pennsylvania.⁠[1]

His grandfather Jacob opened a linen and curtain store on Frankford Avenue in Philadelphia in the 1920s, later run by his father, Joseph Schwarzman; he has younger twin brothers.⁠[2]

He recalled that the children in the family started marking merchandise in the store at around seven or eight.⁠[3]

In high school he was elected student council president and ran sprints on the track team, winning a mile relay at the Penn Relays; after graduating in 1965 he went to Yale.⁠[2]

In 1969 he received a B.A. from Yale University.⁠[4]

After college he worked for about six months at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, then served in the U.S. Army Reserve, and graduated from Harvard Business School in 1972.⁠[1]

He became a partner at Lehman Brothers at age 31 and later headed its global mergers and acquisitions business.⁠[3]

In 1985 he founded Blackstone with former Lehman Brothers chairman Peter G. Peterson, with start-up capital of “$200,000 from me and $200,000 from Pete.”⁠[3]

The firm started with two employees, and he then raised nearly $1 billion for its first private equity fund.⁠[1]

In 1995 he married Christine Hearst, an intellectual property lawyer, with a celebration at the Frick Museum; Christine is the daughter of a New York City firefighter and was previously married to a Hearst heir.⁠[5]

On May 20, 2004, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing ArtsKennedy CenterThe Kennedy Center (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts) is the national performing arts center in Washington, D.C., designated by Congress in 1964 as a “living memorial” to President John F. Kennedy and opened in 1971; after Donald Trump became chairman of its board in 2025, moves to rename it and close it for renovation became the subject of litigation.Open the full entry announced his election as chairman of its board of trustees, effective immediately, succeeding James A. Johnson, who had stepped down that January.⁠[6]

In 2005 he gave $400,000 toward Abington High School’s football stadium, which bears his name.⁠[2]

On June 21, 2007, The Blackstone Group priced 133,333,334 common units at $31.00 each, raising $4.133 billion, for listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “BX”; it concurrently sold $3 billion of non-voting units to an investment vehicle established by the People’s Republic of China with respect to its foreign exchange reserves.⁠[7]

In March 2008 he, a trustee of the New York Public Library, pledged $100 million to the library, which planned to name its Fifth Avenue building after him.⁠[8]

In July 2010, speaking to board members of a nonprofit about the administration’s plan to raise taxes on private equity firms, he said “It’s a war.” and “It’s like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.”; the remarks became public that August.⁠[9]

He subsequently apologized for the analogy.⁠[10]

On April 21, 2013, he announced a $100 million personal gift to establish the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua University, of which he is a founding trustee.⁠[11]

The college’s Chinese name is taken from his Chinese name, Su Shimin; its curriculum is built around global affairs, China’s development and leadership.⁠[12]

On October 24, 2013, a groundbreaking ceremony for Schwarzman College was held on the Tsinghua University campus; by then $260 million had been raised for the program, with admissions planned to open in fall 2015 and the first class in residence by summer 2016.⁠[13]

On May 11, 2015, Yale announced a $150 million gift from him to transform the 1901 Commons and the adjacent Memorial Hall into the Schwarzman Center, a hub for student life.⁠[4]

On September 21, 2015, he gave $40 million to the Archdiocese of New York for Catholic school scholarships, the largest gift in the archdiocese’s 207-year history.⁠[14]

The gift from him and his wife Christine launched the Inner-City Scholarship Fund’s $125 million campaign; he said “Changing lives and giving people a shot is really what we all should be doing as part of society.”⁠[15]

The first students of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University enrolled in 2016, and the college marked the tenth anniversary of that first enrollment in 2026.⁠[12]

On December 2, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump named him chairman of a 16-member group of business leaders advising on how government policy affects economic growth, job creation and productivity; members included Larry FinkLarry FinkLarry Fink (Laurence D. Fink) is an American financier and the co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the asset manager BlackRock. Early in his career he pioneered mortgage-backed securities trading at First Boston; in 1988 he founded BlackRock with seven partners, and he led deals including the acquisitions of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and Barclays Global Investors (including iShares). As of September 30, 2026, BlackRock managed about $15.5 trillion in assets. His annual open letters to chief executives and investors have long drawn market attention.Open the full entry and Robert Iger.⁠[16]

On August 16, 2017, amid a string of resignations from White House advisory councils, he convened a conference call in which a majority of members decided to leave; Trump then announced on Twitter that he was ending the forum and a manufacturing advisory council.⁠[17]

He and other members disputed Trump’s account, saying the members themselves had decided to dissolve the forum.⁠[18]

On February 13, 2018, Blackstone announced that Jon GrayJon GrayJon Gray is an American private equity investor who has served as president and chief operating officer of Blackstone since 2018. He joined Blackstone in 1992, led its real estate business from 2005 to 2018, and led major deals including the acquisitions of Equity Office Properties and Hilton.Open the full entry would become President and Chief Operating Officer reporting to Schwarzman, its Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, with Tony James becoming Executive Vice Chairman.⁠[19]

Peterson, who had left Blackstone in 2008, the year after its IPO, died in March 2018 at age 91; Schwarzman said “One could never ask for a better partner than Pete.”⁠[20]

On October 15, 2018, MIT announced a $1 billion commitment to computing and artificial intelligence, including his $350 million foundational gift and 50 new faculty positions; he said “There is no more important opportunity or challenge facing our nation.”⁠[21]

The college held a three-day launch celebration on February 26–28, 2019, and its inaugural dean, Dan Huttenlocher, took office that August.⁠[22]

On June 19, 2019, the University of Oxford announced a £150 million gift from him to build the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, bringing its humanities faculties together with a new Institute for Ethics in AI.⁠[23]

On July 1, 2019, Blackstone announced that it had completed its conversion to a corporation.⁠[24]

On September 17, 2019, Simon & Schuster published his book What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence.⁠[25]

In a January 2020 letter he joined the Giving Pledge, recalling how his grandfather sent supplies to children in Israel and his father extended credit to immigrant customers in Philadelphia.⁠[26]

On May 15, 2020, he appeared as the guest of episode 96 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, discussing going big in business, recognizing opportunities, philanthropy, MIT’s new College of Computing, the education systems of China and the United States, and the American AI Initiative.⁠[27]

Second-quarter results released on July 20, 2023, showed Blackstone’s total assets under management at $1.001 trillion; he said “Blackstone is the first alternative manager to surpass $1 trillion of assets under management.”⁠[28]

S&P Dow Jones IndicesS&P Dow Jones IndicesS&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) is a global index provider that compiles and licenses benchmark indices including the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It was formed in 2012 by combining McGraw-Hill’s S&P index business with the Dow Jones Indexes business held by a joint venture of CME Group and Dow Jones, and it is now the index business division of S&P Global, which holds about 73% of the interest.Open the full entry announced on September 1, 2023, that Blackstone Inc. would join the S&P 500 before the open of trading on September 18.⁠[29]

In 2024 he was appointed an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire; he had earlier received France’s Légion d’Honneur and, in 2018, Mexico’s Order of the Aztec Eagle.⁠[30]

On September 30, 2025, Oxford announced that the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities would open to the academic community on October 13; with later gifts his support for the project totaled £185 million, and the centre houses eight humanities faculties, the Institute for Ethics in AI, the Oxford Internet Institute and the 500-seat Sohmen Concert Hall.⁠[31]

Plans made public in 2026 showed that he intends to build the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation into a top-10 U.S. philanthropy focused on AI and education and to transfer a substantial majority of his fortune to it upon his death; the foundation held $65 million in assets in 2024. He wrote, “I saw an urgent need to ensure our society is prepared for the changes to come.”⁠[32]

As of October 2026 he remains Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone, which had nearly $1.4 trillion in assets under management as of September 30, 2026; he is also Chairman Emeritus of the Kennedy Center.⁠[30]

Blackstone: Official website: https://www.blackstone.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[24]

Schwarzman Scholars: Official website: https://www.schwarzmanscholars.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[11]