Blackstone Names New CEO of Real-Estate Megafund After Executive’s Fatal Shooting

Blackstone has chosen another top female executive to head its real-estate megafund following the fatal shooting of the fund’s former chief executive officer, Wesley LePatner.

Katie Keenan will become CEO of Breit, one of the firm’s biggest funds aimed at individual investors. She will also become global head of Core+ real estate, overseeing all less risky, lower returning investments in the firm’s $325 billion property business.

LePatner, a 43-year-old mother of two, was killed on July 28 when a shooter opened fire in the lobby of Blackstone’s Park Avenue headquarters in New York. The gunman, who was allegedly targeting the National Football League—another building tenant—killed four people before killing himself.

Keenan currently serves as CEO of BXMT, Blackstone’s publicly traded commercial mortgage real-estate investment trust, and co-chief investment officer of its $77 billion real-estate debt business. Tim Johnson, who heads Blackstone’s real-estate debt business globally, will become CEO of BXMT.

Keenan, 41 years old, has worked at Blackstone since 2012 and was close with LePatner. She said in an interview that taking on the role was a reminder of the loss but that LePatner would have encouraged her to press ahead, despite tough circumstances.

“She cared deeply about this business, and I’m going to be doing my best to help honor her legacy,” Keenan said.

Launched in 2017, Breit is a $53 billion real-estate fund that invests in housing, data centers and warehouses used for e-commerce, among other areas. It has an annualized return of 9.2% since inception.

Breit became Blackstone’s biggest fund at the time by promising a hefty dividend in an era of low interest rates. But a wave of investors began to redeem their shares in late 2022, spooked by rising rates, slumping property values and a stock-market downturn. The fund has posted an annualized return of 1.7% over the past three years.

Now, Blackstone executives believe the commercial real-estate market is turning a corner. Higher costs for labor and materials have meant construction starts are way down, limiting supply. Debt markets have opened up, and cash flows have been growing across the major asset classes.

Breit has posted eight straight months of positive performance. Blackstone said the fund had its best quarter of fundraising in 2½ years in the second quarter at $1.1 billion, while redemption requests continued to diminish.