Nobody Makes Money Like Leon Black

Michael Milken’s protégé is at the top of the private equity food chain

- Caleb Melby And Heather Perlberg

Leon Black, the most feared man in the most aggressive realm of finance, wants you to know he’s misunderstood. Not about the feared part—that much is indisputable. Black built his company, Apollo Global Management Inc., by buying struggling businesses with huge piles of debt at bargain-basement prices, imposing austerity measures on the staff, and extracting huge dividend payments and management fees. Many of Apollo’s most lucrative deals have been from companies other firms wouldn’t go near, and Black is concerned this has left him with a reputation for taking on inordinate risk. “We’ve actually made our most money during recessions,” he says, growing agitated. As his face reddens over his blue Hermès tie, his incongruously soft voice rises by an octave, and he stabs a pile of printed-out emails with an eraserless No. 2 pencil. “Everybody else is running for the doors, and we’re backing up the trucks.”

The most recent recession, triggered by the 2008 financial crisis, created an unprecedented opportunity for private equity firms, and few have taken better advantage than Apollo, Wall Street’s apex predator. During the past 10 years, its assets grew sixfold, to more than $320 billion. Black has amassed a personal fortune of $9.5 billion. Now 68, he became chairman of New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2018, a coronation of sorts among the wealthiest of the wealthy. His office, which is guarded by a display of antique French long guns and has spectacular views of Central Park, is just above that of Henry Kravis, the most infamous corporate raider of the 1980s.