Steve Schwarzman

EARLY CAREER

• Schwarzman started his first business by establishing a lawn-mowing operation at age 14. He employed his younger twin brothers to mow while he brought in the clients.
• He formally started his financial career at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he discovered a passion for corporate finance. There, he learned about the stock market, the money management business, and how to analyze financial statements. 
• Strained with analyzing a potential investment without having all the important information about it at hand, he decided to advance his studies at the Harvard Business School.
• After earning his Harvard MBA, he took on a job at Lehman Brothers. He eventually became the Managing Director of Global Mergers and Acquisitions at age 31. 
• He left Lehman Brothers in 1984 following its acquisition by American Express Company. 
• One year later, Schwarzman and his former boss Peter Peterson formed The Blackstone Group in 1985 with $400,000 of their own money.
• While Peterson retired shortly after Blackstone's 2007 IPO, Schwarzman still presides over the business as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

HIGHLIGHTS 

• As the Former Chairman of President Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, Schwarzman was charged with providing direct input to the President of the United States from business leaders through a non-partisan, non-bureaucratic exchange of ideas.

• He was once labeled the undisputed king of the private equity industry by Forbes magazine.

• With a 2021 net worth of 41.5 billion USD, he is one of the wealthiest people in the United States and the 79th richest person in the world.

CURRENT APPOINTMENTS

• Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of The Blackstone Group
• Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
• Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees of Schwarzman Scholars
  
• Member of the Council on Foreign Relations
• Member of The Business Council
• Member of the Business Roundtable
• Member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum
• Member of the Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, Beijing
• Board Member of The Asia Society and New York-Presbyterian Hospital
• Trustee of The Frick Collection in New York City
  

• Schwarzman is an active philanthropist with a history of supporting education, culture, and the arts, among other things. 
• In both business and philanthropy, he has dedicated himself to tackling big problems with transformative solutions. 
• In 2020, he signed The Giving Pledge, committing to give the majority of his wealth to philanthropic causes. 
• In 2019, he donated £150 million to the University of Oxford, the largest single donation to Oxford since the renaissance.
• In 2018, he announced a foundational $350 million gift to establish the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.
• In 2015, he donated $150 million to Yale University to establish the Schwarzman Center.
• In 2015, he gave a founding gift of $40 million to the Inner-City Scholarship Fund.
• In 2013, he founded Schwarzman Scholars, an international scholarship program at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
• In 2007, he donated $100 million to the New York Public Library.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

• In 2007, Schwarzman was included in TIME’s “100 Most Influential People.” 
• In 2016, he topped Forbes Magazine’s list of the most influential people in finance.
• In 2018, he was ranked in the Top 50 on Forbes’ “World’s Most Powerful People.” 
• The Republic of France has awarded him both the Légion d'Honneur and the Ordre des Arts et des Letters at the Commandeur level. 
• He is one of the only few Americans to receive both awards recognizing significant contributions to France. 
• He was awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor for foreigners in Mexico.