Gray is president and chief operating officer of Blackstone Group, a New York-based alternative asset manager. The publicly traded company manages $1 trillion in assets as of December 2023. Gray was global head of the firm's real estate business from 2005 into 2018, building it into a $115 billion asset operation.
Gray owns 42 million shares and partnership units in Blackstone Group, according to the company's annual report. Most are units that are convertible into common stock on a one-for-one basis, according to the document. Blackstone has $1 trillion in assets under management as of Dec. 31, 2023, according to the company's website.
The billionaire has collected more than $1 billion in dividends and compensation since 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The value of his cash investments is based on an analysis of income, taxes and market performance.
Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for Blackstone, didn't respond to requests for comment on Gray's net worth.
Jonathan Gray was born in 1970 to Chicago entrepreneurs. His father worked in his family business, a maker of auto parts, while his mother ran a catering business, according to a 2011 profile of Gray in the New York Observer.
He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992, receiving a degree in economics from the Wharton School as well as an English degree at Penn. He joined Blackstone after graduating, working in both the corporate advisory services and private-equity groups.
Gray raised the world's largest private real estate fund with $13.3 billion in 2012. He has led the privatization of public real estate companies valued at more than $100 billion, including Extended Stay America, Carr America, Equity Office Properties and Hilton Hotels. In February 2018, he was promoted to president and COO of Blackstone after 13 years as head of the firm's real estate business.
He serves as a board member of the Pension Real Estate Association and Trinity School and is chairman of the board of Harlem Village Academies.
With his wife, Mindy, Gray established the Basser Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, which focuses on the prevention and treatment of certain genetically caused breast and ovarian cancers. They have four daughters.