James Seppala*

Head of Real Estate Europe

James Seppala is a Senior Managing Director in the Real Estate Group and the Head of Real Estate Europe, based in London. Since joining Blackstone in 2011, Mr. Seppala has been involved in a number of Blackstone’s investments across Europe, including Logicor, OfficeFirst, Sponda, and Mileway.

Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Seppala was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs & Co, where he spent 10 years focused on equity and debt investment opportunities in Europe and the United States on behalf of Goldman Sachs’s real estate private equity group.

Mr. Seppala graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 2001. Mr. Seppala currently serves as Chairman of Sponda, is on the board of The Office Group, and chairs the European Advisory Board of the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center at the Wharton School.

Wesley LePatner*

Global COO of Core+ Real Estate

Wesley LePatner is the Global Chief Operating Officer of the Core+ business and the Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT).

Before joining Blackstone in 2014, Ms. LePatner spent over a decade at Goldman Sachs where she most recently was a Managing Director in the Real Estate Investment Group. Prior to that, she worked in the Real Estate Principal Investment Area and the Real Estate Investment Banking Group.

Ms. LePatner received a BA from Yale University, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She serves on the boards of The Hewitt School, The Mount Sinai Children’s Center Foundation and Yale University Library Council. Ms. LePatner also is the Chair of the Women’s Initiative at Blackstone.

Farhad Karim*

COO of Europe and Global General Counsel of Real Estate

Farhad Karim is a Senior Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Europe. He also acts as Global General Counsel of Real Estate.

Mr. Karim received a BA from McGill University and a Masters in International Affairs and JD from Columbia University.

Abhishek Agarwal*

Head of Core+ Real Estate Europe

Abhishek Agarwal is a Managing Director in the Real Estate Group based in London. Mr. Agarwal is the Head of the Core+ Real Estate business in Europe, where he oversees Blackstone Property Partners Europe and Blackstone European Property Income Fund. Since joining Blackstone in 2008, Mr. Agarwal has been involved in real estate investments in various property sectors across Europe including Hispania, HI Partners, Broadgate and Chiswick Park amongst others.

Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Agarwal worked as a software developer with Microsoft, and was involved in the development of Microsoft Windows’ Vista. He received a Bachelors in Technology from the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Allahabad, where he was placed on the Dean’s Merit List. He completed his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore where he graduated with the Gold medal.

Frank Cohen

Global Head of Core+ Real Estate

Frank Cohen is a Senior Managing Director in the Real Estate Group and the Global Head of Core+ Real Estate. He is also the Chairman and CEO of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust.

Since joining Blackstone in 1996, Mr. Cohen has been involved in over $100 billion of real estate transactions. He has been involved with many of the firm’s notable investments, including Equity Office, CarrAmerica Realty, Trizec and IndCor Properties. Mr. Cohen received a BA from Northwestern University, where he graduated from the Honors Program in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences, with a double major in political science.

He serves as a director for several Blackstone portfolio companies, including Equity Office, as a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute, on the Board of the Regional Plan Association and on the Board of Visitors at Northwestern University.

Samir Amichi

Head of Europe Real Estate Acquisitions

Samir Amichi is the Head of Real Estate Acquisitions Europe, based in London. Since joining Blackstone in 2011, Mr. Amichi has been involved in a number of Blackstone’s investments in Europe, including OfficeFirst, the Banco Popular portfolio, Testa Residencial, and the GE European portfolio.

Previously, Mr. Amichi spent seven years in Goldman Sachs International’s real estate private equity group focused on equity and debt investment opportunities in Europe and two years at The Richemont Group overseeing the set-up and growth of its global real estate investment business.

Mr. Amichi received an MS in Management from the HEC business school in Paris, where he majored in Economics.

Adam Shah

Head of Real Estate Asset Management Europe

Adam Shah is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Asset Management for Europe. Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Shah was a Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Europe at Starwood Capital Group, where he most recently led asset management activities across Europe and was a member of the European Investment Committee. Mr. Shah received both a BSc. with honours and a MSc. in Engineering from Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Lama Kanazeh

COO of ICS in Europe and Head of Real Estate ICS in Europe, the Middle East and Asia

Lama Kanazeh is the Chief Operating Officer of Institutional Client Solutions in Europe and Head of Real Estate Institutional Client Solutions in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, based in London. Ms. Kanazeh also serves as the Chair of the Women’s Initiative at Blackstone for Europe.

Before joining Blackstone in 2008, Ms. Kanazeh spent four years at Credit Suisse in their Investment Banking and Leveraged Finance Divisions.

Ms. Kanazeh received a BA in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University.

Paul Quinlan

Global CFO of Blackstone Real Estate

Paul D. Quinlan is a Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of the Blackstone Real Estate group. Mr. Quinlan was previously the CFO for Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies and Blackstone Mortgage Trust. Prior to this, he was a member of Blackstone Finance, where he served as Head of Financial Planning & Business Development, with oversight of management and public reporting, as well as strategic acquisitions such as Capital Trust/BXMT. Mr. Quinlan also served as the CFO for Blackstone Securities Partners L.P. Prior to joining Blackstone in 2010, Mr. Quinlan worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, focusing on strategic corporate M&A and private equity investments. Mr. Quinlan received a BS in Finance cum laude from Georgetown University and an MBA with distinction from the NYU Stern School of Business.

Simon Davies

Head of Real Estate Finance Europe

Simon Davies is a Managing Director in the Real Estate Group, based in London. Mr Davies is involved with tax matters relating to fund formation and international real estate acquisitions and dispositions, with a particular focus on Europe.

Before joining Blackstone in 2007, Mr Davies worked as a Senior Manager in the Investment Management and Real Estate team at PricewaterhouseCoopers and specialized in the tax affairs of international real estate funds and investments.

Mr. Davies received a MEng in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.

Leon Volchyok

Global Deputy General Counsel for Real Estate

Leon Volchyok is a Managing Director in the Real Estate group. Mr. Volchyok plays a key role in the structuring, launch and operations of the Real Estate group’s perpetual capital vehicles, handles the legal affairs for the Real Estate Debt Strategies group and is involved in a number of other initiatives throughout the firm. Mr. Volchyok was instrumental in launching and co-leads Blackstone’s Mexican CERPI, a market leading public platform through which the Mexican pension plans (AFOREs) invest in Blackstone funds. Mr. Volchyok also serves as Chief Legal Officer for Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) and Blackstone Mortgage Trust (BXMT). Mr. Volchyok is the Chairman of the Board for the Institute for Portfolio Alternatives and on the Executive Committee of NAREIT’s Public Non-listed REIT Council.

Prior to joining Blackstone in 2013, Mr. Volchyok was a Senior Associate in the Real Estate Capital Markets group at Proskauer Rose LLP, where he specialized in capital markets transactions and general securities law and corporate governance matters, with a focus on REITs and other real estate companies.

Mr. Volchyok received a BBA from Baruch College – Zicklin School of Business and a JD from Fordham Law School.

Gadi Jay

Head of Real Estate Debt Capital Markets Europe

Gadi Jay is a Managing Director in the Real Estate group and responsible for European Real Estate Capital Markets, based in London. Since joining the firm in 2014, Mr. Jay has been involved in the financing of all European real estate investments including asset, stock and portfolio-level financings and in obtaining fund-level leverage utilized by Blackstone’s European real estate investment vehicles. Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Jay spent 3 years at HSBC Global Banking & Markets where he was a Vice President based in London, focusing on financing and debt advisory mandates across Europe. Prior to that Mr. Jay spent 2 years at HSBC Private Bank in New York and London. Mr. Jay graduated from City University with an LLB (Honors) in Law and Property Valuation.

Diana Hoffmann

Affiliated Director

Diana Hoffmann is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Head of Revantage Europe, a Blackstone portfolio company delivering corporate services to Blackstone’s Real Estate investments and its portfolio companies across the globe, based in Luxembourg. Before joining Revantage in 2012, Ms. Hoffmann was the Director of Finance of Axios Hospitality Real Estate, a Blackstone hospitality portfolio company. She received a Chartered Accountant Degree from the Chamber of Commerce in Berlin and is a graduate of the Berlin College of Hotel Management.

Nathalie Charles

Non-Affiliated Director

Nathalie Charles is the Deputy CEO and Global Head of Investment Management at BNP Paribas Real Estate, based in Paris. Before joining BNP Paribas in 2019, Ms. Charles spent six years at AXA IM Real Assets, most recently as the Head of Development and European Country Teams. She graduated from the École Polytechnique and currently serves as a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute.

Katia Panichi

Non-Affiliated Director

Katia Panichi is a partner at Elvinger Hoss Prussen, based in Luxembourg, and represents Elvinger Hoss Prussen on the executive committee of the Luxembourg Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (LPEA). She received a Master’s degrees in International Business Law from King’s College London and a Maîtrise in International Business Law from the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.