Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. (BREIT) has appointed Robert Harper to serve as interim CEO, following the death of the company’s chief executive Wesley LePatner on July 28 in a shooting at her office building in Manhattan.
Harper will continue to serve as the company’s co-president and a director. He has been with the company since 2002 and was previously head of asset management before becoming a director in August 2023 and co-president last March. There was no formal announcement for Harper’s appointment, which was revealed in a securities filing.
LePatner became CEO in January, succeeding the retiring Frank Cohen at the helm of $55 billion BREIT. LePatner joined Blackstone in 2014 to spearhead the creation of the Core+ business, including the launch of all three open-ended Core+ strategies (US, Europe and Asia). She was 43 at the time of her death.
