Blackstone Names New BREIT CEO To Replace Executive Killed In Mass Shooting
Blackstone has named another female executive to lead its premiere real estate investment fund.
Katie Keenan was appointed CEO and director of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust and global head of its core-plus real estate business. She will replace Wesley LePatner, who was killed in a mass shooting at the company’s New York headquarters in July.
Keenan has been at Blackstone since 2012 and is the global co-chief investment officer for Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies, the investment giant’s debt platform, and the CEO of Blackstone Mortgage Trust, its publicly traded REIT.
“Thanks to the dedication of Wesley and many others, BREIT represents some of Blackstone’s finest work,” Keenan said in a statement. “BREIT is incredibly well-positioned and I am looking forward to working with the team to capitalize on the ongoing real estate recovery, with new supply falling sharply, the cost of debt capital coming down, and transaction activity picking up.”
The promotion comes with a wave of other staffing moves across Blackstone’s investment business. Zaneta Koplewicz, currently head of shareholder relations at BREIT, will become co-president alongside A.J. Agarwal.
Robert Harper, who was appointed interim CEO at BREIT on Aug. 8., will return to his longtime role as head of asset management for the investment fund.
Tim Johnson will take over for Keenan as the CEO at Blackstone Mortgage Trust. Johnson joined Blackstone in 2011 and will continue to serve as global head of BREDS and the chair of the board for the mortgage business.
Austin Peña was named president and director of Blackstone Mortgage Trust, where he was already an executive vice president, and he will continue to lead that business’s investment, capital allocation and balance sheet strategy.
All of the staffing changes will be officially completed as of Nov. 10, with the exception of Keenan’s position as global head of core-plus real estate, which is effective immediately.
“The resilience demonstrated by our team in recent weeks has been nothing short of extraordinary,” Nadeem Meghji and Kathleen McCarthy, global co-heads of Blackstone Real Estate, said in a joint statement. “We are fortunate to have a deep bench of talented colleagues with a relentless focus on delivering for our investors.”
The changes in senior leadership follow the death of LePatner on July 29, after a gunman entered the lobby of the company’s Manhattan headquarters tower — reportedly in search of officials from the NFL — with an M4-style rifle and opened fire. She was one of four people killed.
Blackstone has $325B in assets under management. This month, BREDS inked an $869M deal to acquire nearly $1B in net-lease debt. Blackstone Mortgage Trust also reentered the collateralized loan obligation market this year for the first time since 2021 with a $1B sale.
