Byron Richard Wien (; February 14, 1933 – October 25, 2023) was an American investor. After a long career as an executive at
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...
, he became vice chairman of Blackstone Advisory Partners, a subsidiary of
The Blackstone Group
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter G. Peterson, Peter Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, Stephen Schwarzman, who h ...
.
[Byron Wien Winds Down]
, dated November 26, 2001, in ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' online. Retrieved July 9, 2013. He was regarded as one of Wall Street's most prominent market strategists.
Wien's memoir, which he co-authored with former Blackstone colleague Taylor Becker, was published posthumously on November 12, 2024.
Background
Byron Richard Wien was born in Chicago on February 14, 1933 to Max Wien and Anne (Lurie) Wien.
Both of his parents had died by the time he was 14 years old, and he was thereafter raised by his maternal aunt Rose.
[ He was a 1950 graduate of ]Senn High School
Senn High School is a public four-year high school located in the Edgewater neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Senn is operated by the Chicago Public Schools system and was opened on 3 February 1913. The school ...
in the Edgewater neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago. He received an AB with honors from Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
in 1954, where he was on the staff of ''The Harvard Crimson
''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students.
His ...
''. Two years later, he graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...
.[
]
Career
Byron Wien began his investment career in 1965 as a security analyst at the money-management firm Brokaw, Schaenen, and Clancy, which subsequently merged with Weiss, Peck & Greer. He later transitioned roles from security analyst to portfolio manager, and eventually took a position with Century Capital Associates in early 1983.
He joined Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...
in 1985 and became Managing Director later that year. He spent 20 years at Morgan Stanley, finally ascending to the role of Chief U.S. Investment Strategist. During this time, he wrote weekly investment reports, and was considered among the most widely read investment writers.[ Wien joined hedge fund Pequot Capital Management in 2005 until the firm's closing in 2009.] He joined The Blackstone Group as vice chairman in 2009.[
He produced an annual “Ten Surprises” list which was widely distributed on Wall Street. He also regularly appeared in the financial press, making television appearances and providing quotes for news stories.] In 1995, Wien co-authored a book with George Soros
George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...
on the legendary investor’s life and philosophy, ''Soros on Soros – Staying Ahead of the Curve''.
First Call named Wien the most-read analyst of 1988, while Smart Money magazine honored him as Wall Street's top strategist in 1990. He was named to the 2004 SmartMoney
''SmartMoney'' was ''The Wall Street Journal''s magazine of personal business. The finance magazine launched in 1992 by Hearst Corporation and Dow Jones & Company. Its first editor was Norman Pearlstine. In 2010, Hearst sold its stake to Dow J ...
Power 30 list of Wall Street’s most influential investors, thinkers, enforcers, policy makers, players and market movers. He appeared in the “Thinker” category.
In 2006, Wien was named by New York Magazine
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City.
Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...
as one of the sixteen most influential people in Wall Street
Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...
. The New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) presented him with a lifetime achievement award in 2008.
He was on the Investment Advisory Committee of The Open Society Foundation, and a member of the Investment Committees of Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5  ...
and The Pritzker Foundation. He was a trustee of the New York Historical Society
The New York Historical (known as the New-York Historical Society from 1804 to 2024) is an American history museum and library on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. It ...
and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the JPB Foundation.
Personal life and death
Wien married Lois Rosenthal in 1960. After that marriage ended in divorce, Wien married economic consultant Anita Volz in 1978.[ The couple divided their time between ]Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
and Wainscott, New York
Wainscott is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet in the Administrative divisions of New York#Town, Town of East Hampton (town), New York, East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York (state), New York, United States, on the South F ...
.[
Wien died in ]Southampton, New York
Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stre ...
, on October 25, 2023, at the age of 90.
References
External links
Blackstone
bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wien, Byron
1933 births
2023 deaths
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American business executives
American business writers
American male non-fiction writers
Businesspeople from Chicago
Harvard Business School alumni
Harvard College alumni
Morgan Stanley employees
The Harvard Crimson people