Blackstone President and COO: Investment Decisions, Entrepreneurial Drive and Company Culture

Hi everybody, I'm Nikola Tangen, the CEO of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, and today I'm here with John Gray. Now, John Gray, COO of Blackstone, previously the head of real estate here, and incredibly under his leadership, Blackstone's real estate division has become the biggest in the world. You grew it from some 5 billion to more than 300 billion and you are known for some of the best deals in real estate the world has ever seen, such as the Hilton Hotel. Which you took off market and I'm back on the market and uh wow, well done. Great to be here with you, Nikolai.

And you're taking off the tie today. I took off the tie because I watched your stuff and I didn't want to be overdressed. Now, in short, why has Blackstone been successful? I think we've been successful for a couple of reasons. The main one is we've never forgotten what our mission is, which is delivering for our customers.

And that means delivering premium returns. If you invest in private markets instead of liquid markets, we have to deliver a premium. And because we focused intensely on that across all our different business units, doesn't mean we've always gotten it right, but that focus on returns has been so important to our success over time. And how much money do you need to make for your clients for them to be happy?

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