Jon Gray, President and COO, Blackstone on AI, Private Credit and Big Bets

Jon Gray (0:00)

Today, the hardest part of investing is to know what a professional service is going to be worth. What is a billable hour? What's going to happen in information services? What's going to happen in the media business? What's going to happen in the software business? These are much harder questions, because now we're talking about secular changes.

Where in some cases, some of these businesses will thrive, but others will get knocked out. Understanding that, anticipating it, pricing that, that is what we're facing every day, and that's what we're trying to navigate for our investors.

Penny Pritzker (0:34)

Today, on The CEO Signal, we're talking to Jon Gray, President and Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone. Blackstone is one of the world's largest alternative asset managers, and one of the most powerful voices in private capital.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (0:51)

Gray helped build Blackstone's global real estate business. He's also been central to the firm's rise from a deal maker to a global investment platform.

Penny Pritzker (1:00)

Now Blackstone is making huge bets in private credit, in logistics, in life sciences, and in the infrastructure behind artificial intelligence.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (1:12)

So how does Jon Gray decide which themes and sectors are worth betting on? And how did he tell the difference between a bad moment and a bad call?

From Semafor, this is The CEO Signal.

Penny Pritzker (1:33)

Hello, Edge. It's great to see you.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (1:35)

Hi, Penny. Great to have you back in New York.

Penny Pritzker (1:37)

I'm really excited to be here and I'm excited about our guest, Jon Gray.

He's not technically the CEO of Blackstone, he's the COO.

But he's someone I really want to hear from.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (1:48)

Yeah, we're the CEO Signal, but we will bend the rules for a COO like Jon, because from all I hear from his senior colleagues, he is deeply inside every decision that they make. The biggest decision is about where to commit their capital, he's reading every memo, he's giving very detailed feedback, he's testing the assumptions, and he's really helping set the direction for their biggest investments.

Penny Pritzker (2:10)

Absolutely. And one of the things I really want to hear about is, what's the process? How does he decide where to invest, who to invest with, what interests them? Because from what I understand, Blackstone, when they make a decision about something they like, they go very big, they put a lot of capital to work.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (2:29)

And I think that's the tension. Jon needs enough conviction to commit the firm to go in a certain direction, but he also needs to keep testing that thesis after it's set off in that direction.

Penny Pritzker (2:39)

And then there's another side, Tim, what's with the running videos?

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (2:42)

Yeah, these have gone viral on LinkedIn, but they're not really what you would expect from one of the most senior figures in finance, are they?

Penny Pritzker (2:48)

I think they make him approachable. I think it's a way for him to connect with people.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (2:52)

You are a runner, I am not a runner. Have you been tempted to do this yourself?

Penny Pritzker (2:57)

I'm not going to do running videos. I'm doing the show with you, Edge.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (3:01)

Well, I'm very glad about Penny. So let's bring in Jon.

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Penny Pritzker (3:29)

Okay. Welcome, Jon. We're really thrilled to have you here.

Jon Gray (3:32)

It is great to be with you. Thanks for joining us.

Penny Pritzker (3:35)

Thank you. So welcome to The CEO Signal. And before we get into talking about Blackstone, I want to ask you about your running videos. The important stuff. Absolutely. So you do these running videos all over the world.

Folks at Blackstone see them, folks like me get to see them on LinkedIn. Why do you do them?

Jon Gray (3:54)

Well, it's funny. I think what it's really about, and it happened very organically, is it enables me to communicate with people at scale in an authentic way. If you watch them, they're basically sort of dorky dad vibes, hopefully a little bit of optimism, a little bit of insights into the world.

There's also, I think, an element of you just being sort of a human, right? You're a person, and if you think about the investment business, it's really a trust business at the end of the day. And you're showing people like, hey, we're good people, we care about the right things, you can trust us. So I think there are multiple levels, and it's sort of fun, funny. And at some point, people will be like enough with these running videos. But for now, we keep going.