How Blackstone Lost the Man Who Built BlackRock, the World’s Largest Asset Manager

In the twenty-third instalment of his memoir series for Nikkei Asia, Blackstone chairman and chief executive Stephen Schwarzman reflects on one of the most consequential personnel decisions in the history of American finance — the departure of Larry Fink, who would go on to found BlackRock and build it into the largest asset-management firm in the world.

Schwarzman acknowledges that BlackRock’s name bears a deliberate resemblance to Blackstone’s own, a detail that serves as a lasting reminder of the connection between the two firms and the man who once worked at one before creating the other. According to Schwarzman, parting ways with Fink proved to be a costly mistake — one whose scale became clear only as BlackRock grew to dominate not just the United States market but global asset management as a whole.

The instalment is part of Schwarzman’s ongoing personal history series, which has traced his career from his early professional years through the founding of Blackstone, its public listing, and the firm’s navigation of the global financial crisis. Earlier chapters have covered his relationships with Japanese business and political figures, major deals including the EOP and Edgcomb transactions, and Blackstone’s evolution as an institution.

The series is published by Nikkei Asia and the twenty-third chapter was released on 24 October 2026.