- Blackstone founder and CEO Steve Schwarzman earned $787 million in 2017.
- Most of that is dividends from the shares he owns in the firm.
Blackstone founder and CEO Steve Schwarzman had a monster year in 2017.
Schwarzman drew a salary of $350,000 in 2017, which is a healthy chunk of change to most people (the median household income is about $60,000).
But that’s merely a rounding error for Blackstone’s top boss — less than 0.1% of the total amount he earned last year, according to a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Once you account for carried interest and dividends for the shares of Blackstone he owns, Schwarzman earned a mammoth $787 million in 2017.
According Blackstone’s 10-K filed with the SEC, he pulled in $125.5 million in executive compensation — that includes the salary, but is primarily made up of carried interest, a cut of the profits from the Blackstone investments he’s involved in.
Since he founded and owns a large chunk of the company, he also earned a hefty sum from the profits distributed to shareholders. Schwarzman owns 231.9 million Blackstone “Partnership Units,” which are basically the same as normal shares except they’re typically held by senior management and pay out a slightly higher dividend.
In 2017, common shareholders earned a total annual dividend of $2.70 per share. Holders of partnership units earned $2.85 per share.
So, Schwarzman’s 231.9 million units work out to $661 million in dividends.
In total, Schwarzman brought home $787 million from Blackstone in 2017. Not a bad year.