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atie Keenan has been named chief executive of Blackstone’s $105 billion BREIT, a fund for high‑net‑worth investors, after the tragic death of former CEO Wesley LePatner. LePatner was shot dead in the lobby of Blackstone’s Manhattan headquarters, an incident that also claimed three other lives before the gunman committed suicide. Keenan, 41, will also serve as global head of the firm’s Core+ real‑estate platform.

    Keenan’s 13‑year tenure at Blackstone has seen her occupy several senior positions. She was co‑chief investment officer of the real‑estate‑debt business and led the publicly traded Blackstone Mortgage Trust (BMT) as CEO and president. In 2021 she oversaw BMT’s operations, and in 2024 she became co‑COO of BREDS, the firm’s real‑estate‑debt strategy. Her deal‑making credentials include the $23 billion acquisition of GE’s property portfolio in 2015 and a $675 million loan that financed the 74‑story Waterline tower in Austin, which topped Texas’s skyline upon completion.

    A Harvard graduate, Keenan first entered the industry as a real‑estate investment banker at Lehman Brothers before brief stints at Philadelphia‑based Lupert‑Adler and G2 Investment Group LLC, founded by Guggenheim co‑founder J. Todd Morley. She was highlighted in Business Insider’s inaugural Rising Stars of Wall Street list in 2017, when she managed the Boston and Washington, D.C. offices of the real‑estate‑debt team and closed more than 15 transactions worth $2.75 billion in a single year.

    Tim Johnson, a 14‑year Blackstone veteran who chairs the BMT board and heads the debt business, will assume leadership of the mortgage trust following Keenan’s move. “Thanks to Wesley’s dedication and the efforts of many others, BREIT showcases some of Blackstone’s finest work,” Keenan said in a press release announcing the leadership transition.