Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Announces Leadership Changes

Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. – a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust sponsored by private equity giant The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) – introduced numerous leadership changes this month.

• The REIT appointed A.J. Agarwal as co-president of the company and a director;
• It designated Robert Harper, the company’s current president, as co-president alongside Agarwal;
• It appointed Glen Bartley as chief operating officer; and
• Brian Kim, the company’s head of acquisitions and capital markets and a director, stepped down from his position and took another position as the global chief operating officer of Blackstone’s real estate debt strategies business.

All executive shifts were effective immediately.

Agarwal, formerly the company’s president and a director, recently returned to Blackstone from an academic year sabbatical at his alma mater, Stanford University, and has been involved in the leadership of the company since his return, with a focus on engaging with its stockholders and distribution partners just as he did before his sabbatical. He served as an observer of the board throughout his sabbatical.

Agarwal, age 58, is a senior managing director in the Real Estate Group of Blackstone, where he focuses on its global Core+ business. He was president and a director of the REIT from December 2015 to August 2023. Prior to the launch of the Core+ business, Agarwal was co-head of the U.S. Acquisitions team and oversaw more than $50 billion of investment transactions across all real estate asset classes for Blackstone’s opportunistic real estate funds.

Agarwal joined Blackstone in 1992 and is a member of Blackstone’s Real Estate Investment Committee. He received his Master of Business Administration from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and an undergraduate degree from Princeton University. Agarwal is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Bartley, age 39, is a managing director in the Real Estate Group of Blackstone. Bartley is involved in the management and operations of the REIT and was previously a member of Blackstone Real Estate’s investment team where he focused primarily on driving performance in its office and lab office investments. Before joining Blackstone in July 2019, Bartley worked at Goldman Sachs for 10 years in various roles across the real estate business including acquisitions, asset management, and debt originations and restructurings.

Bartley received a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School, and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University.

The company had a total net asset value of approximately $54 billion as of Jan. 31, 2025, an approximate increase of 0.08% month-over-month. Additionally, the REIT declared gross distributions across asset classes of $0.0541 on Feb. 27, 2025. This was an approximate 1.82% decrease from the previous month’s $0.0551. Both values are prior to stockholder servicing fees.

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