Steven Schwarzman and his giant private equity firm, Blackstone, were in the news this week for a number of reasons.
First, there’s a new biography out on him titled “The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone” by David Carey and John E. Morris, from Crown Business press. The 391-page tome was reviewed by Steve Weinberg for the Philadelphia Inquirer online.
Schwarzman learned about business at an early age. He grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Huntingdon Valley during the 1950s and early 60s. His parents were entrepreneurs, running a family business selling linens and housewares. As the story goes, Steven wanted them to expand the business but they preferred to remain a local business.
After Yale University, an MBA from Harvard and a stint at Lehman Brothers, Schwarzman had greater ambitions. He partnered with Peter G. Peterson, a former U.S. secretary of commerce during the Nixon administration, to form their own boutique investment firm which they named the Blackstone Group.
The book chronicles the rise of Blackstone as a firm, as much as it is a biography of Schwarzman, says Weinberg. There are also sections that offer a primer on the private-equity industry, which might be useful for anyone interested in the business.
Blackstone was also in the news this week for making a major push into the middle east. It has set up an office in Dubai, its first foray into the region, to tap into the lucrative advisory and investing opportunities from sovereign wealth funds in the region, reports, Zawya.com
The United Arab Emirates is a major source of capital for Blackstone, and has been traditionally a place for fundraising, rather than investing, for the largest global private equity firms.
It’s almost inevitable that we will see greater private equity activity in the middle east, right? Let us know your opinion, below.
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