Women in CRE: Wesley LePatner

Wesley LePatner

Growing up, Wesley LePatner was fascinated by constant construction in her New York City neighborhood, and dinner conversation at home, with her real estate and bankruptcy attorney parents, often turned to real estate. It’s no wonder she gravitated toward real estate when choosing her career path.

“It felt natural and relatable to me, LePatner said. “After all, the sector touches the trends we all encounter in our daily lives.”

At Blackstone, LePatner is senior managing director, Global Head of Blackstone’s Core+ Real Estate Business & COO of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust. She oversees business with more than $140 billion in assets under management. LePatner helped launched Core+, which targets high-quality real estate investments located in markets with strong fundamentals that offer attractive yields and appreciation potential.

Before joining global investment firm Blackstone in 2014, LePatner spent more than a decade at Goldman Sachs, where she had most recently been a managing director in the Real Estate Investment Group, Asset Management Division. Prior to that, she worked in the firm’s Real Estate Principal Investment Area, Merchant Banking Division, and the Real Estate Investment Banking Group.

LePatner urges women to step up and embrace challenges. “Throughout my career, I’ve learned and grown the most when I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone,” she said.

Mentoring and sponsoring younger colleagues, particularly women as they grow and develop their careers is extremely important to her as is developing diverse leaders others can look up to.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion is critically important to Blackstone’s culture and makes our firm, our portfolio companies and communities stronger,” she said. 

Close to Home

Managing a global team at work while raising two children isn’t always easy, but LePatner said she is consistently working to bring her whole self to the job and integrate her professional and personal lives in a way that is authentic.

“I couldn’t do any of it without my husband, who has an equally demanding career, and those same parents who inspired me to start on the journey in the first place,” LePatner said. 

“Seeing other women mature throughout their careers, as they move from the analyst level to climb the ranks of leadership, is very rewarding.”

Read the March 2023 issue of CPE.