Blackstone's Wesley LePatner killed in Manhattan shooting

Blackstone Inc. executive Wesley LePatner, who ran the firm’s $53 billion real estate fund for wealthy individuals, was killed Monday in the shootings at the firm’s Manhattan headquarters.

“Words cannot express the devastation we feel. Wesley was a beloved member of the Blackstone family and will be sorely missed,” the firm said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “She was brilliant, passionate, warm, generous and deeply respected within our firm and beyond.”

The gunman killed himself and four people, including LePatner, 43, in a shooting spree at 345 Park Ave. in Manhattan on Monday. Two senior law enforcement officers said the suspect was targeting the National Football League’s office, but ended up on the floor of another company by mistake.

LePatner, who joined in 2014, was the head of Blackstone’s core-plus real estate business, a major division at the asset manager. She rose through the company’s ranks rapidly as the business grew, and this year took on the role of chief executive officer of the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, a property owner with investments in data centers, rental apartments and warehouses. 

She spent more than a decade at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. She has served on the boards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the UJA-Federation of New York and Yale University Library Council, and is a member of the Advisory Board of Governors of NAREIT.

LePatner was the honoree at a UJA dinner in 2023, where Blackstone President Jon Gray called her “wicked smart” and a person who “cares deeply about others.”

Speaking at the dinner, LePatner recalled how she had attended similar events two decades earlier, where there were no women on stage and very few in the audience.

“I encourage all of you to use your voice,” she told the crowd. “It matters now more than ever.”