This week saw Blackstone shuffle the pack of its most senior management staff and heads of real estate.
New York-based Ken Caplan (pictured right) and Kathleen McCarthy (pictured centre) now arguably jointly hold the most powerful job in property worldwide, after taking on the role of co-heads of the company’s $115bn real estate division.
Jon Gray (pictured left), the revered architect of Blackstone’s success in real estate since the financial crisis, has been elevated from the role to president and chief operating officer. Tony James has stepped down from that role but remains as executive vice-chairman.
Gray’s ascension is a nod not just to his own personal attributes but also to the fact that real estate now generates half of the business’s overall earnings.
Gray will continue to be chairman of the real estate business but will inevitably be drawn to other areas. His natural passion is property, however, and he is notoriously meticulous and driven – so it is likely he will still be quite involved, given his hands-on nature.
Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone’s 71-year-old co-founder, chairman and chief executive, is unlikely to loosen his grip on the business that he established in 1985 any time soon – “he’ll likely be carried out in his box” said one insider – but Gray has always been viewed as the natural successor as and when the time is right.
Familiar figure
Caplan will be a relatively familiar figure to UK and European property professionals, having been head of real estate for Europe until 2015 before becoming global chief investment officer for real estate.
He is a natural investor and deals man and is expected to be relatively involved “on the ground”. Caplan is also the co-head most likely to be involved with European deals, given his history.
It is also expected that Blackstone will deploy more capital in Europe than any other region: there is a relatively large amount of opportunistic propositions, particularly in southern Europe, compared with more mature or late-cycle markets in the US and Asia.
McCarthy is likely to be less familiar to the European market. She joined Blackstone in 2010 from Goldman Sachs, where she was a vice-president focused on investments for its Real Estate Principal Investment Area division.
As chief operating officer, McCarthy has been instrumental in moving Blackstone’s real estate division from a pure opportunistic focus to one that is heavily diversified into core-plus investing, a move that swathes of fund managers have subsequently followed.
This area of the business is expected to grow disproportionately quickly. When Blackstone first dipped its toe in the water of the sector in 2014, Schwarzman claimed it could grow the business to $100bn of assets under management – a figure that seemed gargantuan then but now seems far more realistic, given that it hit $27bn this month.
Strategically driven
McCarthy is more strategically driven than Caplan and is expected to continue broadly to focus on working with Blackstone’s limited partners, which are predominantly pension funds based in the US as well as sovereign wealth funds from around the world.
Under the two co-heads in Europe is James Seppala, who last month took on the role of head of real estate for Europe. The 38-year-old is seen as a likely future player at Blackstone’s very top table once he has mastered his current role and leads its biggest deals in Europe.
Anthony Myers, who vacated the role Seppala holds, is chairman of the business and now slightly less hands-on, having been in charge of building up its €12.25bn Logicor business, which was sold to CIC last year.
Samir Amichi sits as Seppala’s de facto number two in Europe as head of European real estate acquisitions. In the UK and Ireland, Blackstone’s key acquisitions executive is Michael Vrana.
Managing director James Lock is more focused on the asset management of the company’s UK portfolio, in particular its London offices.
Blackstone – Who to know
- Ken Caplan Co-head of real estate – New York (investment focused)
- Kathleen McCarthy Co-head of real estate – New York (fundraising and strategy focused)
- Anthony Myers Senior managing director – London (chairman of real estate for Europe)
- James Seppala Senior managing director – London (head of real estate for Europe)
- Samir Amichi Senior managing director – London (head of real estate acquisitions for Europe)
- Michael Vrana Managing director – London (heads acquisitions in the UK and Ireland)
- James Lock Managing director – London (heads asset management and London offices)
