Jonathan D. Gray, born on February 4, 1970, in Highland Park, Illinois, to a Jewish family, is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone Inc., overseeing the firm's real estate and credit businesses. He grew up in a middle-class environment marked by his parents' divorce, with his father Allen Gray owning Blackstone Manufacturing and his mother Susan operating a catering business. Gray graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 with a B.A. in English and a B.S. in Economics from Wharton. He joined Blackstone in 1992 as an analyst and rose through the ranks, spearheading the firm's entry into real estate in the mid-1990s and orchestrating landmark deals like the $26 billion leveraged buyout of Hilton Hotels in 2007. As President and COO since 2018, he has been instrumental in Blackstone's global expansion and management of over $1 trillion in assets, serving on the Board of Directors, Management Committee, and investment committees while chairing Hilton Worldwide. A billionaire with a net worth estimated in the billions, Gray is also a prominent philanthropist and Democratic Party supporter. Married to Mindy Basser since 1995, they have four children and have founded initiatives like the Basser Center for BRCA at the University of Pennsylvania and NYC Kids RISE, focusing on cancer research and education equity.