8 questions for Wall Street titan Steve Schwarzman

Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman rose through Ivy League schools and the US Army Reserves to become one of the top bankers at Lehman Brothers at the beginning of Wall Street's leveraged buyout boom.

He went on to launch Blackstone in 1985. The investment firm today manages more than $300 billion in assets.

Blackstone has emerged as by far the biggest private equity firm in the industry and Schwarzman, as CEO, has become the richest private-equity executive on Wall Street.

Schwarzman has put his considerable wealth behind major philanthropic endeavors. He has made sizeable donations to his undergraduate alma mater, Yale, and to the Archdiocese of New York's Inner-City Scholarship Fund.

Early next year, he will also become co-chair of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit group of top CEOs that works with government and charity causes to benefit the five boroughs.

Business Insider visited Blackstone's headquarters in New York and spoke with Schwarzman at length about his earliest days as an investor, how the private equity industry has evolved and what will happen when the Federal Reserve raises rates.

Here's what he had to say: