Jon Gray, President and COO of The Blackstone Group

In this episode, Blackstone President and COO Jon Gray discusses the historic dislocation in markets brought on by the pandemic, the themes driving Blackstone’s investment strategy moving forward, and the importance of “high conviction” in his approach to investing. 

On the themes driving his investing strategy: “We love to think about investing thematically. And what are the big picture things driving opportunity? Where will values go up? And I would say today it falls into two main areas. The first is where there are trends that have been interrupted by the pandemic… The second big area would be where the pandemic has accelerated trends – and most of this is in the virtual world.”  

On what makes a successful investor: “I would say being high conviction in my approach to investing is probably the most important thing. That identifying a theme, a business, or something I really believe in, going all in, that has paid off. And that when I just sort of dabble things around, it tends not to work out as well.”