Stephen A. Schwarzman is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone.  Mr. Schwarzman has been involved in all phases of the firm’s development since its founding in 1985.  The firm is currently the world’s largest independent alternative asset manager with $218 billion Assets Under Management, as of March 31, 2013. 

Mr. Schwarzman is an active philanthropist with a history of supporting education and schools.  Whether in business or in philanthropy, he has always attempted to tackle big problems and find transformative solutions.  In 2013, he founded an international scholarship program, “Schwarzman Scholars,” at Tsinghua University in Beijing, to educate future leaders about China.  At $300 million, the program is modeled on the Rhodes Scholarship and is the single largest philanthropic effort in China’s history coming largely from international donors.  In 2007, Mr. Schwarzman donated $100 million to the New York Public Library, on the board of which he serves.  Mr. Schwarzman is also committed to supporting education locally, sending over two hundred students per year to parochial schools in the New York area.

Mr. Schwarzman is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations, The Business Council, The Business Roundtable, and The International Business Council of the World Economic Forum. He serves on the boards of The Asia Society, The Board of Directors of The New York City Partnership and The Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, Beijing.  He is a Trustee of The Frick Collection in New York City and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  In 2007, Mr. Schwarzman was included in TIME’s “100 Most Influential People.”  In that same year, he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur of France and promoted to Officier in 2010. 

Mr. Schwarzman holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.  He has served as an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management, is on the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors and Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council.  In 2012, he was awarded an Honorary Degree from Quinnipiac University.