Leon Black

Leon Black
Born	Leon David Black 1951-07-31July 31, 1951 (age 75) New York City, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Dartmouth College (A.B., philosophy and history, 1973) Harvard Business School (M.B.A., 1975)
Alma mater	Dartmouth College
Occupation	Private equity investor
Years active	1975-present
Employer	Drexel Burnham Lambert (1977-1990) Apollo Global Management (1990-2021) Elysium Management (2021-present)
Title	Chairman and chief executive officer, Apollo Global Management
Term	1990-2021
Successor	Marc Rowan
Known for	Co-founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management Head of mergers and acquisitions at Drexel Burnham Lambert Art collecting, including Munch's The Scream
Net worth	US$13.8 billion (2026)
Spouse	Debra Ressler
Children	4
Parents	Eli M. Black Shirley Lubell

Leon David Black (born July 31, 1951) is an American private equity investor who co-founded Apollo Global Management in 1990 and served as its chief executive officer until 2021. Before founding Apollo he spent thirteen years at Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he became head of the mergers and acquisitions group and was regarded as a close associate of the high-yield bond financier Michael Milken.

Apollo grew from a firm founded in the wreckage of Drexel's bankruptcy into one of the largest alternative asset managers in the world, specialising in leveraged buyouts and distressed debt. It listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011 and, as of March 2026, managed approximately $1.03 trillion in assets. Black's fortune, estimated at approximately $13.8 billion in 2026 by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, derives principally from his retained shareholding in the firm.

Black resigned from Apollo in 2021 and from the chairmanship of the Museum of Modern Art following disclosures about his financial relationship with the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A review commissioned by Apollo's board and conducted by the law firm Dechert LLP found that Black had paid Epstein approximately $158 million between 2012 and 2017 for tax and estate planning advice; Senate investigators later established the figure at approximately $170 million. The Dechert review found no evidence that Black was involved in Epstein's criminal activities. Black has said that he deeply regrets the relationship and has denied any wrongdoing. He has been the subject of several civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct, all of which he has denied and none of which has resulted in a finding of liability against him; he has not been criminally charged.

Early life and education

Family

Leon David Black was born on July 31, 1951. His father, Eli M. Black, born Elias Blachowitz in Poland in 1921, emigrated to the United States as a child and became chairman and later majority owner of the United Brands Company, the food conglomerate that owned Chiquita. His mother, Shirley Lubell, was an artist and the sister of the Tulsa oil executive Benedict I. Lubell.

In February 1975, when Black was 23, his father died by suicide at the age of 53, jumping from his office in the Pan Am Building in Manhattan. The death occurred shortly before the disclosure that United Brands had paid a bribe to a Honduran official, a scandal that became known as Bananagate. The event has been widely cited in profiles of Black as formative.

Education

Black received an A.B. in philosophy and history from Dartmouth College in 1973 and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1975.

Career

Early positions

Black began his career as an accountant at Peat Marwick, later part of KPMG, and worked with the publisher Boardroom Reports. He interviewed at Lehman Brothers and was told, by his own later account, that he had neither the intellect nor the personality to succeed on Wall Street.

Drexel Burnham Lambert, 1977-1990

Black joined the investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1977 and remained for thirteen years. He rose to managing director, head of the mergers and acquisitions group, and co-head of the corporate finance department.

Drexel in the 1980s was the dominant force in the high-yield or junk bond market, which it used to finance a wave of leveraged buyouts and hostile takeovers that reshaped American corporate ownership. Black worked closely with Michael Milken, who ran the firm's high-yield operation from Beverly Hills, and was widely described as Milken's principal counterpart on the corporate finance side in New York.

Drexel collapsed in February 1990 after pleading guilty to securities and mail fraud charges and paying $650 million in penalties, and it filed for bankruptcy. Milken was separately convicted and imprisoned. Black was not charged with any offence.

Apollo Global Management

Founding and strategy

In 1990, in the immediate aftermath of Drexel's bankruptcy, Black co-founded Apollo Advisors, later Apollo Global Management, together with Marc Rowan, Josh Harris and Antony Ressler, all former Drexel colleagues.

The firm's founding insight came directly from Drexel's collapse. The high-yield bonds Drexel had underwritten were being liquidated at distressed prices by forced sellers, particularly by savings and loan institutions unwinding under regulatory pressure. Apollo's first major transaction involved acquiring the junk bond portfolio of the failed Executive Life Insurance Company at a steep discount. The bonds recovered, and the trade established the model the firm would use for three decades: identify assets priced for catastrophe, assess whether the catastrophe is real or merely perceived, buy at the distressed price, and either restructure the business or wait for the discount to close.

Apollo became known for a willingness to take positions in the debt of troubled companies and to use those positions to gain control through bankruptcy restructuring, an approach sometimes described as loan-to-own. The style attracted a reputation for aggressiveness in creditor negotiations.

Notable investments

Apollo's most profitable single transaction was its investment in LyondellBasell, the chemicals company that entered bankruptcy in 2009. Apollo accumulated more than $3 billion in face value of the company's senior loans at an average cost of between 50 and 60 cents on the dollar. When LyondellBasell emerged from bankruptcy and relisted, the position, which had cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars, produced a profit of several billion.

In 2008 Apollo and TPG completed a leveraged buyout of the casino operator Harrah's Entertainment, later Caesars Entertainment, in a transaction valued at approximately $30 billion. The timing immediately preceded the financial crisis, and the heavily indebted company subsequently underwent a contested and litigated restructuring in which its main operating subsidiary filed for bankruptcy in 2015. The deal is frequently cited as an example of the risks of peak-cycle leveraged buyouts, though Apollo's aggressive management of the restructuring limited its losses.

Also in 2008, Apollo paid $1 billion for a 50 percent stake in Norwegian Cruise Line and majority control of its board, rescuing the company from financial distress. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings went public in January 2013 with Apollo holding a 32.5 percent stake, and the investment produced a substantial return.

Other investments during Black's tenure included ADT, Realogy, Hostess Brands, Rexnord and a large portfolio of credit and insurance assets. The firm's expansion into insurance, through its relationship with the annuity provider Athene, became a defining feature of its later growth and of the strategy pursued by Rowan after Black's departure.

Public listing and growth

Apollo listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011. Under Black's leadership as chief executive the firm grew to manage more than $450 billion in assets by the time of his departure, and it has since exceeded $1 trillion.

The Huntsman litigation

In 2008 Apollo-backed Hexion Specialty Chemicals sought to withdraw from an agreed merger with the Huntsman Corporation. Huntsman sued. In 2009 the matter was settled, with Black personally contributing $60 million toward a settlement payment.

Departure

Black stepped down as chief executive officer in January 2021, following publication of the Dechert report, and left Apollo entirely in March 2021, relinquishing the chairmanship earlier than he had initially indicated. He was succeeded as chief executive by Marc Rowan.

Since leaving Apollo, Black has managed his personal capital through his family office, Elysium Management, which invests in real estate and private equity. In February 2024 he sold Apollo shares for the first time since co-founding the firm, disposing of approximately $172.8 million of stock, around 2 percent of his holding.

Other business interests

In 2012 Black acquired Phaidon Press, the fine art book publisher.

Board and institutional roles

Black served on the board of trustees of Dartmouth College from 2002 to 2011 and sits on the college's President's Leadership Council. He endowed a chair in Shakespeare studies and a programme in Jewish studies there.

In 2018 he was elected chairman of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, with his term commencing on July 1, 2018. His term ended on July 1, 2021, and he did not seek re-election, following protests by artists and activists over his ties to Epstein.

He has been a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, the Jewish Museum, the Asia Society, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Mount Sinai Hospital, the Cardozo School of Law and the Vail Valley Foundation. He and his wife Debra both serve on the board of the Melanoma Research Alliance.

Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

Origins and scale of payments

Black had a long association with Jeffrey Epstein. In 1997 he appointed Epstein as a trustee of his family foundation. Black contributed to a birthday album compiled for Epstein's fiftieth birthday in 2003 by Ghislaine Maxwell, submitting a handwritten rhyming poem signed "Love and kisses, Leon."

In 2019 Black said that he had maintained a limited relationship with Epstein. Epstein's calendars subsequently showed more than 100 meetings between the two men between 2013 and 2017, typically at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse.

In his 2020 letter to Apollo investors Black said Epstein had provided estate planning, tax and philanthropic advice to his family partnership and related entities, and that he had paid Epstein millions of dollars annually. The New York Times reported that the total was at least $50 million.

The Dechert review

In October 2020 Black asked the Apollo board to conduct an independent review of the relationship. The board's conflicts committee retained the law firm Dechert LLP.

The Dechert report was released on January 25, 2021. It found that Black had paid Epstein approximately $158 million between 2012 and 2017 for financial services, and that the tax strategies Epstein devised had saved Black at least $1.3 billion. The report concluded that it had found no evidence that Black was involved in any way in Epstein's criminal activities, and that the payments were for legitimate advisory work, while noting that the sums were far in excess of what such work would ordinarily command.

Black announced his intention to step down as chief executive and pledged to donate $200 million to women's initiatives. He said that he deeply regretted his relationship with Epstein.

Subsequent investigations

In 2023 Black paid $62.5 million to the United States Virgin Islands to be released from claims arising from the territory's investigation into Epstein's activities. He was not charged with any offence, and the settlement contained no admission of liability.

In July 2023 the United States Senate Committee on Finance disclosed that it was examining Black's tax strategies and his dealings with Epstein. In July 2025 Senator Ron Wyden called on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate potential tax evasion related to the payments and urged the Department of Justice to subpoena Epstein-related records from Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank.

In March 2026 Wyden released material establishing that Black had paid Epstein a total of approximately $170 million rather than the $158 million identified by the Dechert review, Senate investigators having found an additional $12 million in transfers. The New York Times reported in 2026 that the total substantially exceeded what elite law or accounting firms charge for comparable work, and that Epstein had also assisted Black in making payments to women, with at least $20 million going to about a dozen women, some of whom Black had sexual relationships with.

Congressional investigation

In June 2026 Black appeared voluntarily for a closed-door transcribed interview before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as part of its investigation into Epstein and Maxwell. He told the committee that Epstein had "duped and deceived" him and denied knowing about Epstein's sex trafficking. He declined to answer broader questions concerning non-disclosure agreements involving women, and the interview concluded before the committee had finished its questioning.

Committee chairman James Comer subsequently issued two subpoenas, one requiring production of the agreements and another compelling a deposition. The committee released the interview transcript on July 17, 2026.

Black did not attend the deposition scheduled for September 3, 2026. Instead he filed suit against the committee in federal court in Washington, seeking to block the subpoenas on the grounds that they were invalid and that the committee had exceeded its authority in seeking non-disclosure agreements, arguing that the women concerned had bargained for confidentiality and had been given no notice and no opportunity to be heard. According to The New York Times it was the first instance of a witness in the committee's Epstein investigation going to federal court to challenge its authority.

Members of the committee from both parties said they would consider holding Black in contempt of Congress. Comer said he would hold Black in contempt immediately but would first consult committee members and House lawyers. Robert Garcia, the panel's senior Democrat, described the lawsuit as an attempt to slow the investigation. Susan Estrich, a lawyer for Black, said the committee was conducting a fishing expedition and seeking information that does not exist, and that the existence of a confidentiality agreement does not imply misconduct. Through Estrich, Black again denied wrongdoing, saying that he had never abused a woman, never engaged in sex trafficking and never paid Epstein for access to women, and that he regretted ever dealing with Epstein.

On August 31, 2026, Representative Thomas Massie named Black in a speech on the floor of the House as one of fourteen people he said had aided Epstein, and pressed the Justice Department to release withheld files. PBS News Hour noted that inclusion in the released Epstein files does not in itself indicate wrongdoing.

Litigation

Ganieva

In March 2021 the Russian model Guzel Ganieva alleged in a series of social media posts that from 2008 she had been sexually harassed and abused by Black over a period of years and had been forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement under duress. Black denied the allegations, stating that the two had had a years-long consensual affair, and accused her of extortion.

Ganieva filed suit, represented by Jeanne Christensen of Wigdor LLP, and Black countersued. A judge dismissed Ganieva's claims in May 2023, ruling that the non-disclosure agreement clearly and unambiguously covered all claims arising out of the parties' relationship. In January 2025 the Appellate Division in Manhattan upheld the ruling by four votes to one, holding that the October 2015 agreement covered all her claims including defamation and that she had ratified it by accepting $9 million from Black before suing. The majority wrote that it recognised the trauma attendant upon sexual abuse but could not allow a party to repudiate a contractual arrangement after accepting its benefits for more than five years. The dissenting judge considered that Ganieva had remained under continuing duress until she first spoke publicly. Estrich said the decision vindicated Black completely.

Emails unsealed in 2026 showed that in 2015 Ganieva had demanded $100 million from Black, that Epstein had assisted Black in handling the dispute and arranged meetings between them, and that Ganieva ultimately agreed to a non-disclosure agreement under which Black paid her $100,000 per month over fifteen years, totalling $18 million.

Pierson

In 2022 Christensen filed a suit on behalf of Cheri Pierson, who alleged that Black had raped her in 2002 at Epstein's New York townhouse. Black denied ever having met Pierson, and his lawyers characterised the suit as an extortion attempt. Pierson withdrew the lawsuit in February 2024.

Doe

In July 2023 a third suit was brought by Christensen alleging that Black had raped a 16-year-old girl at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse in 2002. Black denied the allegations and denied ever meeting the plaintiff, accusing the firm of manufacturing defamatory claims.

Members of the plaintiff's family subsequently told Black's investigators that she had a history of inventing accounts and had not received the diagnoses claimed in the complaint. In April 2026 a judge determined that the plaintiff had falsified sonogram images in her personal journals, sanctioned Christensen in a 76-page ruling for repeatedly making false statements to the court and to opposing counsel, ordered Wigdor to pay part of Black's legal costs, and Christensen withdrew from the case. The plaintiff subsequently represented herself.

Proceedings against Wigdor

In August 2023 Black sued Wigdor LLP for malicious prosecution, arguing that the firm's business model depended on allegations that could be avoided only through large settlements. A judge declined to dismiss the claim in September 2024, but an appeals court dismissed it in March 2025 under anti-SLAPP legislation intended to protect access to litigation. In March 2026 Wigdor filed a further action against Black alleging that he had used strategic lawsuits against public participation to target its lawyers and clients.

The Manhattan district attorney's office briefly investigated sexual assault allegations against Black. No charges were filed.

RICO action against Josh Harris

In 2022 Black brought a civil action under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act naming his Apollo co-founder Josh Harris, alleging that Harris had led a group within the firm that sought to damage his reputation after the Epstein payments were reported. Judge Paul Engelmayer dismissed the suit for lack of evidence, and an appeals court upheld the dismissal in 2023.

Art collection

Black is among the most significant private art collectors in the United States.

In May 2012 he purchased one of the four versions of Edvard Munch's The Scream, paying $119.9 million for the pastel, then the highest price ever paid at auction for a work of art. The Museum of Modern Art exhibited the work for six months from October 2012.

In June 2013 it emerged that Black had bought Head of a Young Apostle, an eleven-inch work by Raphael, for £29 million after a four-party bidding contest.

In December 2015 he purchased a complete set of the Daniel Bomberg Babylonian Talmud at auction for $9.3 million, which Sotheby's described as a world auction record for any piece of Judaica.

A dispute over the Picasso sculpture Bust of a Woman (Marie-Thérèse) between the advisory firm Pelham Europe, acting for a member of the Qatari royal family, and the gallery owner Larry Gagosian, who had resold the work to Black, was settled in June 2016 by the owner Maya Widmaier-Picasso, with Black retaining the sculpture.

Philanthropy

Through the Debra and Leon Black Family Foundation, Black provided $7.5 million to establish a fellowship programme for United States military personnel and veterans at the Harvard Kennedy School.

In 2007 he and his wife donated $25 million to establish the Melanoma Research Alliance, following Debra Black's own melanoma diagnosis. In 2012 he gave $48 million toward a visual arts centre at Dartmouth College.

During the COVID-19 pandemic the Blacks partnered with Aramark and the Mayor's Fund to launch NYC Healthcare Heroes, committing $20 million to supply care packages of food, household goods and personal care items to more than 100,000 healthcare workers in New York City.

Following the Dechert report Black pledged $200 million to organisations working on women's issues.

Personal life

Black is married to Debra Ressler, a 1976 graduate of Barnard College and a Broadway producer, and the sister of Antony Ressler, an Apollo co-founder who later founded Ares Management. They have four children. One of their sons, Benjamin, runs an investment fund and was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the United States International Development Finance Corporation.

Black's principal residence is in Manhattan, and he has a beachfront compound in Southampton, New York. In 2016 he and Debra purchased a Beverly Hills estate previously owned by the actor Tom Cruise for approximately $38 million; the property was sold in March 2026 for approximately $47 million. He listed a condominium at Miami's Faena House for sale in 2016.

In literature

In September 2026 the financial journalist William D. Cohan published Money to Burn: The Unvarnished Truth About Leon Black, Apollo, and the Rise of a New Wall Street, drawing on interviews with Black first published in Puck. Cohan's account attributes Black's downfall to his own conduct and credulity rather than to complicity in Epstein's crimes, and Cohan described the book in part as a rebuttal of press coverage of Black. A spokesman for The New York Times said the paper had covered Black fairly and accurately and that its reporting had stood up through the subsequent Epstein revelations.

External links

• Apollo Global Management