Visionary Investor Byron Wien Dies at 90

Byron Wien served as Blackstone’s vice chairman of Private Wealth Solutions for 14 years. Image via screenshot from a Blackstone video, courtesy of Blackstone.

Byron Wien, vice chairman of Blackstone’s Private Wealth Solutions group and prominent Wall Street influencer, passed away on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at the age of 90. Many followed Wein’s wisdom, especially through his annual ‘Ten Surprises’ list and his ’20 Life Lessons’, which helped forge investors’ strategies and cultivate a collaborative business environment.

Wien helped guide Blackstone’s investment strategy for 14 years. He played a critical role in growing the company’s private wealth solutions business by sharing his market and macroeconomic observations and by drawing in clients with his deep insight.

“I am personally so grateful to have worked with Byron for so many years. He stretched my thinking about what was going on in the wider world and inspired me to live a life of endless learning, deep friendships and great generosity, which is how he lived his life,” Global Head of Blackstone Private Wealth Solutions Joan Solotar, said in a statement.

Byron Wien became an orphan at 14 and had to start working at 15. In an interview with Solotar from earlier this year, he said that this formative experience has shaped his independent nature. Wien graduated from Harvard Business School with distinction. After several other jobs, he had a 21-year career at Morgan Stanley, as chief U.S. investment strategist.

Market mover

During his tenure at Morgan Stanley, Wien started his ‘Ten Surprises’ tradition, in 1986. This was a list of views and predictions that he made about the economy, financial markets and politics. He defined a surprise as an event which the average investor would only assign a one out of three chances of taking place, but which Wien believed was probable.

His forecasts about the economy, politics and societal trends became widely read and shaped many investment strategies over the 38 years in which he published the lists. In 1995, Wien co-authored a book with legendary investor and philanthropist George Soros, called Soros on Soros – Staying Ahead of the Curve.

In 1998, Wien was named the most widely read analyst on Wall Street by First Call (now Thomson ONE Analytics). In 2000, he was ranked the number one strategist by SmartMoney.com, and in 2004, he was named to the 2004 Smart Money Power 30 list of Wall Street’s most influential investors, thinkers, enforcers, policy makers and market movers, in the “Thinker” category. In 2006, New York Magazine named Wien as one of Wall Street’s most influential people of all time.

“Byron’s legacy will be among the most consequential of all financial figures across Wall Street,” said Todd Myers, Private Wealth Solutions COO, in a video about Wien. “It’s the longevity of Byron’s career, it’s the decades’ worth of loyalty that his fans have for him—that is unparalleled in most instances,” Myers added.

Cultivating a network

One of Wien’s core pieces of advice was to always treat a new acquaintance as a potential friend. This attitude helped him cultivate a wide network of like-minded individuals, mentors and mentees. He encouraged people to collaborate and share their experiences with each other, learn as much as possible and always read.

“You should cheer other people’s successes because they don’t deprive you of opportunity. In fact, other people’s successes may make greater opportunity for you,” Wien said in an interview earlier this year.

At Blackstone, Byron Wien is succeeded by Joseph Zidle, chief investment strategist & senior managing director at the company’s private wealth solutions business. Zidle joined Wien in 2018 in co-authoring the 10 surprises list.