Leader Of The Pack: A Conversation With Blackstone’s Ken Caplan

Kenneth A. Caplan is a Senior Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Blackstone Real Estate. Blackstone has the largest real estate platform in the world with $167 billion in investor capital under management. Blackstone Real Estate is the industry leader in opportunistic, core plus and debt investing across the US, Europe and Asia. Mr. Caplan most recently served as Global Chief Investment Officer of Blackstone Real Estate and prior to that as Head of Real Estate Europe. Since joining the firm in 1997, Mr. Caplan has been involved in over $100 billion of real estate acquisitions and initiatives in the United States, Europe and Asia. These include major acquisitions such as Equity Office Properties, Hilton Hotels, Logicor and GE Real Estate. Before joining Blackstone, he was at Lazard Frères & Co. in the real estate investment banking group. Mr. Caplan received an AB in Economics from Harvard College, where he graduated magna cum laude, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was a John Harvard Scholar. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Prep for Prep.

Shane leads Ryan’s Property Tax Consulting practice and has nearly thirty years of experience in property tax management and consulting. His experience includes analysis and valuation of real and personal property, representation of taxpayers before appeal boards, and comprehensive property tax planning. A majority of his current practice is helping clients navigate the complexities of property tax in mergers and acquisitions. His clients include strategic and financial participants in transactions on both the buy and sell side.

Cedric Bobo is the CEO and Co-founder of Project Destined, a social impact vehicle that trains urban youth and military veterans to be owners and stakeholders in the communities in which they live, work and play. Prior to founding Project Destined, Cedric spent over 20 years as an investor and investment banker including over 10 years at The Carlyle Group where he committed over $2 Billion of equity capital. In 2015, Cedric was named to the “10 Top Powerful Black People on Wall Street You Should Know.” Prior to Carlyle, he worked at D.L.J. Merchant Banking (London) and McCown De Leeuw. He is the co-founder of Charter Board Partners, a non-profit focused on governance in the charter school sector. He also serves on the District of Columbia’s Office of Public Charter School Financing and Support Credit Committee and Beauvoir, The National Cathedral Elementary School. Cedric received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a BSME, summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee.