Blackstone Chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman reflected on his early career at Lehman Brothers in a personal essay published October 9, 2026. He wrote a senior paper on the firm in 1972, which received an A-plus.
The essay offers a personal glimpse into the early career of a prominent figure in the private equity industry and his reflections on a firm that later collapsed.
Stephen Schwarzman, the founder, chairman and CEO of Blackstone, reflected on his early career at Lehman Brothers in a personal essay published on October 9, 2026. Schwarzman wrote a senior paper on the firm in the spring of 1972, shortly before graduating from Harvard Business School, which earned him an A-plus.
Schwarzman co-founded the private equity firm Blackstone with Peter Peterson in 1985. Initially a merger-and-acquisition advisory business, Blackstone has grown into the world's largest alternative asset manager, overseeing more than $1 trillion in assets. Peterson retired after Blackstone's 2007 initial public offering, while Schwarzman continues to lead the company as chairman and CEO. Schwarzman began his Wall Street career at Lehman Brothers and has written about management missteps at the firm in his 2019 memoir. He also started a lawn-mowing business at age 14, employing his younger twin brothers.
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