Stephen A. Schwarzman
Stephen Allen Schwarzman is an American businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of the private equity firm Blackstone Inc., which he established in 1985 with Peter G. Peterson. Schwarzman was chairman of President Donald Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum.
According to Forbes, Schwarzman has a net worth of US$43 billion as of May 2025.
Early life and education
Schwarzman was raised in a Jewish family in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, the son of Arline and Joseph Schwarzman. His father owned Schwarzman's, a former dry-goods store in Philadelphia, and was a graduate of the Wharton School.Schwarzman's first business was a lawn-mowing operation when he was 14 years old, employing his younger twin brothers, Mark and Warren, to mow while Stephen brought in clients.
Schwarzman attended the Abington School District in suburban Philadelphia and graduated from Abington Senior High School in 1965. He attended Yale University, where he was a member of senior society Skull and Bones and founded the Davenport Ballet Society. After graduating in 1969, he briefly served in the U.S. Army Reserve before attending Harvard Business School, where he graduated in 1972.
Investment career
Schwarzman's first job in financial services was with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, an investment bank that merged with Credit Suisse in 2000. After business school, Schwarzman worked at the investment bank Lehman Brothers, became a managing director at age 31, and then head of global mergers and acquisitions. In 1985, Schwarzman and his boss, Peter Peterson, started The Blackstone Group, which initially focused on mergers and acquisitions. Blackstone branched into business acquisition, real estate, direct lending, alternative assets, and had $1.1 trillion in assets under management as of September 30, 2024.When Blackstone went public in June 2007, it revealed in a securities filing that Schwarzman had earned about $398.3 million in fiscal 2006. He ultimately received $684 million for the part of his Blackstone stake he sold in the IPO, keeping a stake then worth $9.1 billion. In the following years, his compensations increased even more: he received $350 million in 2007 and $702.4 million in 2008—partly due to stock awards. His salary was $734.2 million in 2015, $425 US million in 2016 and $786 US million in 2017. In 2022, he was paid $253 million, making him the highest paid CEO in the US that year.
In June 2007, Schwarzman described his view on financial markets with the statement: "I want war, not a series of skirmishes... I always think about what will kill off the other bidder."
In September 2011, Schwarzman was listed as a member of the international advisory board of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
As of 2025, Schwarzman is a member of The Business Council.
Political and economic views
Schwarzman is a Republican who favors lower taxes, lower government spending, and reproductive rights. He raised $100,000 for George W. Bush's political endeavors.In August 2010, Schwarzman compared the Obama administration's plan to raise the tax rate on carried interest to a war and Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, stating, "It's a war. It's like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939." Schwarzman later apologized for the analogy. In 2012, Obama called Schwarzman and requested his assistance in brokering a budget agreement with Republicans in congress to avoid a fiscal cliff. Eventually a deal was brokered with Schwarzman's help. The new tax plan added $1 trillion of additional revenue by raising taxes, closing tax loopholes, and ending deductions. Obama later drafted a formal message of support for Schwarzman Scholars, an education initiative undertaken by Schwarzman.
He endorsed and fundraised for Mitt Romney in 2012. During the 2016 Republican primary, he declined to support any one particular candidate. He identified as center-right and said the eventual GOP nominee should appeal to independent voters, not the right wing of the Republican Party. At the same time, he had positive things to say about Hillary Clinton.
In early 2016, he said that in a two-candidate race he would prefer Donald Trump to Ted Cruz, saying that the nation needed a "cohesive, healing presidency, not one that's lurching either to the right or to the left." He had previously made a donation to Marco Rubio in 2014.
In late 2016, Schwarzman "helped put together" a team of corporate executives to advise Trump on jobs and the economy. The group, which includes JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Walt Disney boss Bob Iger and former General Electric leader Jack Welch, became Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum. In February, Schwarzman was named as chair of the 16-member President's Strategic and Policy Forum, which brought together "CEOs of America's biggest corporations, banks and investment firms" to consult with the president on "how to create jobs and improve growth for the U.S. economy." On August 16, 2017, following five members' resignations, President Trump announced via Twitter he was disbanding the forum.
He is a longtime friend of president Donald Trump and provides outside counsel, and served as chair of Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum. In response to criticism for his involvement with the Trump administration, Schwarzman penned a letter to current Schwarzman Scholars, arguing that "having influence and providing sound advice is a good thing, even if it attracts criticism or requires some sacrifice”.
In December 2018, non-profit consumer advocacy organisation Public Citizen published a report titled: Self-Funded' Trump Now Propped Up By Super PAC Megadonors." The report disclosed that Schwarzman donated $344,000 in support of Trump's re-election campaign. Following his election, Trump appointed Schwarzman as the chairman of the White House Strategic and Policy Forum.
In 2020, Schwarzman donated $15 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super-PAC tied to Mitch McConnell, $3 million to Donald Trump's America First Action PAC, and a combined total for the election cycle of $33.5 million to Republican candidates. Several of the Republicans he funded voted against certifying the 2020 Presidential Election.
In private, Schwarzman called the January 6 United States Capitol attack an "insurrection" and "an affront to the democratic values we hold dear". However, he stopped short of criticizing Trump over the riot.
In 2022, Schwarzman indicated that he would not support the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign, providing in a statement to Axios that it was "time for the Republican Party to turn to a new generation of leaders." In 2024, Schwarzman announced that he would support Donald Trump as a "vote for change."
In 2025, Schwarzman said the tariff situation in the US had put Europe in a unique position to capture more investment from those looking to diversify away from uncertain markets.
In the fall of 2025, Schwarzman became a key player in efforts to resolve the longstanding dispute between the Trump administration and Harvard University over university policies and billions of dollars in research funds.
In October 2025, Schwarzman was named by the White House as a donor to the construction of the White House State Ballroom, a proposed expansion of the East Wing.
In November 2025, Schwartzman attended a red carpet dinner at the White House for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Bin Salman, invited by President Donald Trump, was making his first visit to the United States since the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, which U.S. intelligence implicated bin Salman in.
Philanthropy
In 2004, Schwarzman donated a new football stadium to Abington Senior High School—the Stephen A. Schwarzman Stadium.In 2018, it was announced that Schwarzman gave $25 million to Abington High School, his alma mater. However, this donation was contingent on several conditions, including naming rights to the school. After the public learned about the deal, a new agreement was made and Schwarzman removed several of the conditions for his donation, including renaming the school.
In 2018, Schwarzman donated $350 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create the Schwarzman College of Computing. In 2019, the University of Oxford announced that Schwarzman had donated £150 million to establish the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. In 2008, Schwarzman announced that he contributed $100 million toward the expansion of the New York Public Library, of which he serves as a trustee. The central reference building on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue was renamed the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. In 2021, Schwarzman and his wife Christine gave $25 million to the Animal Medical Center of New York in New York City. The hospital was renamed The Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Animal Medical Center.
In 2013, Schwarzman announced a $100 million personal gift to establish and endow a scholarship program in China, Schwarzman Scholars, modeled after the Rhodes Scholarship program, to build a network of country experts. The Schwarzman Scholars program is housed at Tsinghua University. Since its inception, the program has maintained ties to the United Front Work Department as well as other organizations and personnel affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.
In 2015, Peter Salovey, the president of Yale University, announced that Schwarzman contributed $150 million to fund a campus center in the university's "Commons" dining facility. He has sat on the board of trustees of New York-Presbyterian Hospital since 2016. Schwarzman announced in February 2020 that he had signed The Giving Pledge, committing to give the majority of his wealth to philanthropic causes. In 2018, Schwarzman donated $10 million to another library, the National Library of Israel. In 2020, Schwarzman pledged to give $8 million to the USA Track and Field Foundation in the run-up to the 2021 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics.