Blackstone Names Real-Estate Veteran, Christopher Heady, as Asia-Pacific Chairman

Blackstone Group LP has promoted a 16-year veteran banker, Christopher Heady, who played a key role in expanding the group’s real estate business by naming him as chairman of its Asia-Pacific businesses. He played a key role in the region.

Heady will continue leading the firm’s Asia real estate division and be supported by Jan Nielsen, who will serve as chief operating officer for all businesses, the company said in a press release. Nielsen leads private-equity investing in Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea. Daisuke Kitta, who leads Blackstone’s real estate activities in Japan, was named head of Japan.

Heady’s appointment helps to bolster the firm’s leadership in the region and comes after it recruited Zhang Liping from Credit Suisse Group AG as chairman for Greater China last July. The announcement of the new chairman comes about two years after Michael Chae, who oversaw Blackstone’s private-equity activities in the Asia-Pacific region, returned to New York to resume his responsibility for media and communications investments. Chae had spent more than three years building the firm’s business in Asia.

Heady, who joined Blackstone in 2000, has been involved in the firm’s real estate acquisitions and initiatives in the U.S., Europe and Asia. He led about $3 billion of investments made by the firm in China, India, Japan and Australia, according to the company’s website. Prior to Blackstone, he was with Morgan Stanley in London, where he was involved in real estate private equity.

Nielsen joined Blackstone in 2005 in London. Before that, he was an associate at Morgan Stanley’s technology investment banking group, according to Blackstone’s website.