The Blackstone Group — Past Speakers

Byron Wien.jpg — BYRON WIEN

Investment Strategist

Byron Wien is Vice Chairman of Blackstone’s Private Wealth Solutions group where he acts as a senior adviser to both the Firm and its clients in analyzing economic, social and political trends to assess the direction of financial markets and thus help guide investment and strategic decisions.

He has been known for being "the most widely read analyst on Wall Street," "the No. 1 strategist by SmartMoney.com based on his market calls." and was named to the Smart Money Power 30 list of Wall Street’s most influential investors, thinkers, enforcers, policy makers, players and market movers. He was also named by New York Magazine as one of the sixteen most influential people in Wall Street.

He previously served as Chief Investment Strategist for Pequot Capital and before that served for 21 years as Chief (later Senior) U.S. Investment Strategist at Morgan Stanley. In 1995, Mr. Wien co-authored a book with George Soros on the legendary investor’s life and philosophy, Soros on Soros – Staying Ahead of the Curve.

Byron Wien participated in the Economic Forecast for 2021 with Byron Wien and Joe Zidle, on February 15 2021. Wien and Zidle provided a special forecast on the economy and the markets given the many unusual factors - Covid, a new Administration and the continued political divide, raging unemployment, etc. What are we likely to see in the next few months and what can we hope for?

Peter Peterson ✝

Investment banker, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce

Peter George Peterson was the founder and chairman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to raising awareness of America’s long-term fiscal challenges and promoting solutions to ensure a better economic future. Prior to starting the Foundation, Peterson spent more than 50 years working in business and public service. In 1985, he co-founded The Blackstone Group, and over the next two decades he helped grow the firm into a global leader in alternative investments. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Peterson served as chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers and Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc. Before working in Washington, Pete was Chairman and CEO of audio-visual equipment manufacturer Bell & Howell, and an executive at advertising firm McCann Erickson.

Peterson’s public service began in 1971, when President Richard Nixon named him Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs. One year later, he was named U.S. Secretary of Commerce. At that time, he also assumed the chairmanship of President Nixon’s National Commission on Productivity and was appointed U.S. Chairman of the U.S.-Soviet Commercial Commission. He again took on a public service role from 2000 to 2004, when he chaired the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

In addition to his work with the Foundation, Peterson was chairman emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, founding chairman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC, and founding president of The Concord Coalition. Along with former U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, he co-chaired the Conference Board Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise. He served as a director of numerous corporations and was the author of five books, including the best-selling Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It (2004) and his recently published memoir, The Education of an American Dreamer: How a Son of Greek Immigrants Learned His Way from a Nebraska Diner to Washington, Wall Street, and Beyond.

Peterson passed away at the age of 91 on March 20th, 2018.

He was hosted by The Common Good in 2008: The Crisis We Don't Like to Talk About.