Leon Black
Private equity · New York, New York
Net worth
$14.5B
Today
+$83M+0.58%Past month
+$271M+1.91%As of Nov 11, 2026, 1:50 PM EST
Leon Black is cofounder of private equity behemoth Apollo Global Management, which manages $1 trillion in assets. Black stepped down as Apollo's CEO and chairman in 2021 after a board investigation found that he paid $158 million in fees to Jeffrey Epstein. A further investigation upped the sum to $170 million. Black spent much of his early career at investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he eventually headed the mergers and acquisitions group. After Drexel filed for bankruptcy in 1990, Black founded Apollo with Drexel colleagues Joshua Harris and Marc Rowan, both of whom are billionaires. Apollo went public in 2011; Black still owns roughly 9% of the company's shares.
Net worth over time
Principal holdings
2 positions| Company | Industry | Share | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
Private and other holdings | Finance & Investments | 54.9% | $8.0B |
Apollo Global Management NYSE: APO | Finance & Investments | 45.1% | $6.5B |
Also known for
- An avid art collector, Black spent $120 million in 2012 for one of four versions of Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream."
- Black and his wife, Debra, a melanoma survivor, have given millions of dollars to the Melanoma Research Alliance.