Alex Wong/Getty Blackstone Group CEO and co-founder Steve Schwarzman
The cofounder of The Blackstone Group is a multi-billionaire, ranking 38 in the most recent Forbes rich list with a net worth of $11.6 billion.
He can be seen hobnobbing with public figures ranging from the Pope to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
The leveraged buyout boss had humble beginnings, however. He studied at Yale before getting started on Wall Street in 1969.
That first stint didn't last long however, with Schwarzman later saying: "I had no economics. I had no ability to read a financial statement. I had never had accounting. They gave me an office and a secretary and some annual reports and assignments. I didn't even know how to approach it."
He later spent a stint in the Army Reserves before completing his MBA at Harvard and returning to Wall Street with Lehman Brothers. The rest is history.
Business Insider tracks Schwarzman's incredible life so far: