In 1985, Stephen Schwarzman and Pete Peterson, who had worked together at Lehman Brothers, founded Blackstone, the alternative asset manager. In June 2007, Blackstone went public with an initial public offering that brought Mr Schwarzman $684m in cash and shares worth $7.8bn at the time of the offering.

Mr Schwarzman turned 60 on Valentine's Day last year, a turning point he celebrated with a grand party featuring a live performance by Rod Stewart. That event, and the personal financial success crystallised by the IPO, meant that for a time Mr Schwarzman became the poster boy for Wall Street excess.