Nadeem Meghji leaving Blackstone as real estate chief

Nadeem Meghji leaving Blackstone as real estate chief

Wed, September 9, 2026 at 4:52 PM GMT+3 2 min read

Nadeem Meghji is stepping down as global head of real estate at Blackstone, the investment firm confirmed, less than a year after he took sole charge of the business. Two veteran executives have been named to replace him.

David Levine, formerly head of Blackstone's Americas real estate group, and Giovanni Cutaia, who held the title of president of the real estate business, will take over as co-heads. Each has been at Blackstone for at least 12 years, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Meghji joined Blackstone in 2008 and spent nearly 20 years at the firm. He was named global co-head of real estate in 2024, sharing the role with Kathleen McCarthy, who left in 2025 after 15 years at the company. Meghji became sole global head following her departure. He is leaving to spend more time with his family, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"Despite this departure, we have a business with an enormous amount of continuity and tremendous talent," Blackstone President Jonathan Gray said. "And David and Gio are prime examples of that."

Meghji's exit is part of a broader pattern of senior departures from Blackstone's real estate group. Roughly twelve senior managing directors have exited Blackstone's real estate group over the past three years. Blackstone's real estate group currently counts 45 senior managing directors on its roster, who have been with the firm an average of 14 years.

Blackstone's real estate portfolio is valued at more than $600 billion. The firm manages more than $1.3 trillion across businesses including private equity, infrastructure, and hedge funds. A $30.4 billion global real estate fund it closed in 2023 set a record as the biggest drawdown fund — real estate or private equity — ever raised.

The firm's non-traded real estate investment trust, Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust — known as Breit — faced a wave of investor redemption requests beginning in late 2022, forcing it to limit withdrawals for more than a year. The situation has since stabilized; by early 2024 Breit was once again meeting all redemption requests in full, and the second quarter of this year brought its first net inflow in four years.

Under Meghji's leadership, Blackstone built out its data center strategy into a portfolio worth $185 billion as of July 2026.