Wesley LePatner, a senior executive at Blackstone who was among those killed in the shooting on Monday at an office tower in New York City, was a mentor to women in her workplace and her synagogue, according to friends, who praised her skills in balancing work, community and family.
Ms. LePatner, one of her company’s top-ranking women, possessed a stellar résumé: She was chief executive of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust and had spent more than a decade at Goldman Sachs before joining Blackstone in 2014. She graduated summa cum laude from Yale University. She was committed to Blackstone, one friend said, and traveled often and worked hard, but also prioritized spending time with her husband and two children.
On its social media accounts, Blackstone promoted Ms. LePatner as a role model for women, a position she embraced in the male-dominated industry, her friends said. She spoke on panels that focused on women in the industry, offering guidance.
“The goal is for you to embrace change,” she told a crowd at a symposium for women in real estate last fall, according to one real estate publication.
Ms. LePatner was married to Evan LePatner, and the couple had a teenage daughter and a son who is in the seventh grade at a Jewish day school in Manhattan, where Ms. LePatner was on the board.
“She was a uniquely brilliant and modest leader and parent, filled with wisdom, empathy, vision and appreciation,” read a letter sent on Tuesday to parents whose children attend the school.
The LePatner family, in a statement, asked for privacy while they mourn.
“She was the most loving wife, mother, daughter, sister and relative, who enriched our lives in every way imaginable. To so many others, she was a beloved, fiercely loyal and caring friend, and a driven and extraordinarily talented professional and colleague,” the statement said. “At this unbearably painful time, we are experiencing an enormous, gaping hole in our hearts that will never be filled, yet we will carry on the remarkable legacy Wesley created.”
Ms. LePatner met her husband on their first day at Yale in 1999, according to a Facebook post by the author Bruce Feiler, who said he had served on a board with her at the university.
Mr. Feiler called Ms. LePatner “the best of humankind” and praised her generosity and mentorship to women.
“She was the most effortless and impressive person — you wanted to follow her wherever she went,” he wrote, saying that she “just felt in every way like the kind of leader we all want and need in these unsettling times.”
“I howled when I heard the news and haven’t stopped shaking since. Godspeed to her family. God helps us all,” he wrote.
Ms. LePatner was on the boards of UJA-Federation of New York, a charitable organization focused on Jewish causes, and the Yale University Library Council, and was a member of the advisory board of governors of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, according to Blackstone’s website.
In 2023, UJA-Federation of New York honored Ms. LePatner at its annual Wall Street dinner with its Alan C. Greenberg Young Leadership Award.
“Wesley was extraordinary in every way — personally, professionally and philanthropically,” the organization said in a statement, noting that her achievements were “all the more notable as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field.”
Ms. LePatner led a “solidarity mission” with the organization after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas, the group said in a statement.
She helped found the Altneu Synagogue in New York, an Orthodox congregation, and offered guidance to leaders there, especially to women, friends there said. She had also joined the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art this year.
Max Hollein, chief executive and director of the museum, remembered Ms. LePatner as warm and passionate and said that although she was new to the board, she had already immersed herself in the museum.
“She was a very successful woman, but someone who immediately engaged with deep understanding, empathy and serious commitment,” he said. “We thought she would be for decades at the Met and be a key part of the institution.”
Dionne Searcey is a Times reporter who writes about wealth and power in New York and beyond.
Maureen Farrell writes about Wall Street for The Times, focusing on private equity, hedge funds and billionaires and how they influence the world of investing.
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