But that’s not all.  

Before assuming this position, Nides served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2021 to 2023 under President Joe Biden and as deputy secretary of state for management and resources under President Barack Obama from 2011 to 2013. 

In the private sector, he served as the chief operating officer, managing director and vice chairman of Morgan Stanley, chief administrative officer of Credit Suisse, and worldwide president and CEO of PR agency Burson.

On this week’s Walker Webcast, recorded in July and hosted by Steve Hills, author and former president and general manager of The Washington Post, Nides credited his leadership skills to his breadth of experience in the public and private sectors. But he also emphasized the importance of maintaining perspective.

“You can't take yourself too seriously,” he said. “We're all smart, we're all lucky, and we're probably all brighter than the person next to us. But if you actually start believing that you got to these jobs because you're the best of the business, you're going to be a loser.”

Nides said business and politics have a lot more in common than people recognize. In most cases, people in government think most people in business are “kind of selfish and only care about themselves,” and people in the business world believe that people in government “just screw up and waste money,” he said. 

“When you have people that have both these experiences, it's just great for humanity,” Nides said. “It's a mindset about how you look at people in jobs and if you treat people with respect and dignity.” 

The conversation quickly shifted to the Iran conflict in the Middle East, as it had been 100 days since the beginning of U.S. and Israeli military operations. 

When asked how the U.S. got into the conflict — and how it will get out of it — Nides referred to the situation as a “shit show.”

“When we did the original nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which basically stopped the [Iranian] nuclear programs, it wasn't a perfect deal by any imagination,” Nides said. “It didn't deal with ballistic missiles. It didn't deal with the proxies. It didn't deal with a lot of stuff, but the idea was to basically stop the nuclear program and begin a negotiation.” 

When President Donald Trump decided to rip up that agreement, Nides said, he made a commitment that he was going to stop the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon. 

The reality of this situation, however, is that the Iranians understand the president wants to end this war, but they won’t let him. As a result, the U.S. is in a very difficult place, he said. 

“Unfortunately, this is where we are today,” Nides said. “My biggest fear is that some huge accident is going to happen or something on purpose is going to happen, such as a drone strike on our military bases. At that point, it's going to unleash something that I think none of us have yet to see, and that scares the hell out of me.”

“To be clear, the [administration] that cut more civil service jobs than any president in the U.S. was Bill Clinton and Al Gore,” Nides said. “Al Gore was in charge of reinventing the government. He actually replaced more government employees than Elon Musk. But there's a way to do this, and there's a way not to do it.”

Nides pointed to the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, as an example of a government agency that has been highly impacted by DOGE cuts. 

USAID has been effectively dissolved by the Trump administration, which cut roughly 85% of its programs. Nides said that by doing so, Trump is eliminating the “soft power” the U.S. has around the world, which could create future complications.

“USAID, which is not perfect and needs reform, represents our country's soft power,” he said. “Soft power is what makes America America. It’s what distinguishes us from countries like China. It's what we do in countries and how we make countries better. ... That's the only way. And by the way, we're learning this lesson right now in real time in Iran.”

Nides said that for the U.S. to end the conflict in Iran, the administration will have to have a diplomatic response, as this is the only way long-term peace can be achieved. 

“You can't bomb your way into peace,” he said.

Hills later touched on Nides' role as vice chairman at Blackstone, acknowledging that the past few years have been turbulent in the commercial real estate industry. 

Nides said the market hasn’t been in peak form recently, as investors have been worried about their property values. But the tides are changing, even amid geopolitical instability. 

“We've now seen a huge uptick in our real estate, not only in flows of cash coming in but even the performance of some of those assets,” he said. “We have plenty of assets that still need to be worked through, but ultimately, the fundraising in our big funds have dramatically increased, and we are very much focused on hard assets.”

Overall, Nides said Blackstone feels good about the CRE market today but would like to see interest rates come down.

“It would make our business feel a little bit better, so we could actually sell some of these assets, but we feel quite positive on private credit,” he said. 

Subscribe to the Walker Webcast on YouTube for new episodes every week.

This article was produced in collaboration between Walker & Dunlop and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content. 

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