Wes Edens
Wes Edens is the Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Fortress Investment Group, a leading, highly diversified global investment manager. Under his leadership, Fortress has developed and owned transportation and infrastructure projects across the world, and built industry-leading businesses in real estate, health care, financial services, media, and entertainment. Edens is also the Founder and Chairman of New Fortress Energy, a fully integrated, global energy leader, and a catalyst for the development of Brightline, the first privately owned, operated, and maintained passenger rail system in the United States. Prior to founding Fortress, he was a Partner and Managing Director of BlackRock, where he headed BlackRock Asset Investors, a private equity fund. He was also a Partner and Managing Director at Lehman Brothers. Edens is a co-owner of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, Premier League soccer team Aston Villa and Portugal's Vitoria Club Sport soccer club.
Wes Edens Professional Experience / Academic History
Professional Experience
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Co-Founder and Co-Chairman
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Partner and Managing Director, BlackRock Asset Investors
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Partner and Managing Director
Academic History
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B.S., Finance
CURRENT AFFILIATIONS
Chairman of the Board, New Media Investment Group Inc.
New Media Investment Group Inc. Drive Shack Inc.
Director, Mapeley Limited
Under his leadership, Fortress has developed and owned transportation and infrastructure projects around the world.
He is responsible for the firm’s private equity and publicly traded alternative investment businesses.
He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Fortress since 2006. He has also been a member of the Management Committee for the firm since co-founding it in 1998.
EARLY CAREER
Edens has extensive credit, private equity finance and management expertise.
He is a catalyst behind Brightline which connects Florida cities from Miami to Orlando and provides a second corridor between Southern California and Las Vegas.
He has been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! Finance, and Time.
He and his family also established The Edens Family Fund for Climate Change Research at Princeton University and endowed the Edens Professorship in Global Health at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, along with a research fund to focus on solving international infectious diseases and environmental health hazards.