Bloomberg – Schwarzman Collects $787 Million in ’17 to Rule Over Wall Street

By Anders Melin and Melissa Mittelman

For Steve Schwarzman, it was a very good year.

The Blackstone Group LP co-founder received $786.5 million for 2017, his biggest take-home ever, according to calculations based on the firm’s annual report filed March 1. His stake in New York-based Blackstone—and the $661 million in dividends it yielded—fueled much of the payout.

The rest came from his cut of deal profits, salary and other compensation, according to the filing. In 2016, Schwarzman got $425 million.

Investors seeking assets other than stocks and bonds fueled the rise of Blackstone and its peers, which offer access to private equity, real estate and hedge funds, turning many of their founders into billionaires. The firm manages $434 billion, more than double its next-biggest U.S. competitor, and Schwarzman, 71, owns about 19 percent of the business.

That’s helped him remain the top earner among the nation’s private equity titans for years. By comparison, Apollo Global Management LLC’s Leon Black took home $191.3 million last year. Carlyle Group LP co-founders David Rubenstein, Bill Conway and Dan D’Aniello divvied up a combined payout of $193 million. KKR & Co.’s Henry Kravis and George Roberts received a combined $343 million.

Jon Gray, who was promoted to president and chief operating officer this month, received a $274 million payout. That included $116 million in dividends, $130.7 million in carried interest, a $25.8 million bonus, $1.15 million in shares of Blackstone’s publicly traded real estate investment trust and a $350,000 salary. The REIT shares and part of his bonus are deferred and will pay out over several years. Gray owns about 3.4 percent of the firm.

Joan Solotar, head of the firm’s private wealth solutions group, received $10.8 million, consisting of $9.43 million total pay and $1.4 million in dividends. That’s likely to be one of the highest payouts to a woman on Wall Street for 2017.