Hamilton James

Hamilton "Tony" James was recruited to Blackstone Group in 2002 to help run its rapidly-expanding private equity and asset management business.As the COO and president, James oversaw Blackstone's rise to the biggest buyout firm on the planet, with $439 billion in assets under management.He handed day-to-day management duties to Blackstone head of real estate Jonathan Gray in February 2018, but remains involved as executive vice chair.The Harvard alum started his career at investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and did a stint at Credit Suisse before joining Blackstone. He is a board member of several environmental nonprofits and in 2016 co-authored Rescuing Retirement, a book on solutions to the retirement crisis.