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It is nine degrees on a Sunday in January, and while most New Yorkers are hunkered down during New York City\u2019s largest snowfall in years, Blackstone\u2019s president and chief operating officer is jogging through several inches of fresh snow in Central Park.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Gray sounds a little out of breath as the snow falls around him. \u201cThis is a tough environment,\u201d he says in the 42-second video, looking directly into the camera phone carried by a friend trudging alongside him. \u201cIt reminds me of the motto: \u2018Stay calm, stay positive, never give up.\u2019 It also reminds me of investing. Conditions are not always perfect. There\u2019s noise, but you stay the course\u2014you don\u2019t lose sight of what\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The clip will rack up 2.7 million views for Gray, the 56-year-old heir apparent to the top job at the world\u2019s largest alternative asset manager, which oversees about $1 trillion and ranks No. 321 on the Fortune 500.<\/p>\n
Gray is not yet CEO. But he is already doing a version of the job in social media feeds, and offering a preview of what the modern corner office now demands: a chief executive who doubles as a creator\u2011in\u2011chief.<\/p>\n
The accidental influencer<\/p>\n
Across the Fortune 500, the C-suite now comes with an unwritten rule: Show up on social media, or at the very least, on LinkedIn. In 2025, over two-thirds of Fortune 100 CEOs had at least one social media account, and of those, 71% posted at least once per month, a 37% increase in activity from the year prior, according to a report from communications advisory firm H\/Advisors Abernathy. <\/p>\n
Few executives embody this \u201calways\u2011on\u201d expectation as naturally as Gray. His jogging dispatches, including nearly 50 videos filmed in the past year, have become a fixture on LinkedIn. Gray\u2019s LinkedIn posts regularly generate nearly 440,000 impressions and average more than 100,000 views per video. One travel montage spanning several European cities drew 5.9 million views alone, according to Blackstone. Between flights and investor meetings, the executive carves out time to explain economic swings, market volatility, and tech trends, all while touting Blackstone\u2019s global reach.<\/p>\n
Since his appointment to COO in 2018, the firm\u2019s assets under management have roughly doubled, while its client base has expanded across new geographies. Gray, who joined the firm fresh out of college in 1992, insists his jogging videos are not part of any master plan. \u201cI\u2019m the accidental influencer here,\u201d he tells Fortune. Indeed, he says, when Christine Anderson, Blackstone\u2019s global head of corporate affairs, first suggested he start posting videos, Gray says he was \u201cresistant for an extended period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he finally gave in, Gray started by following the formula many executives rely on: what he now describes as dull, \u201ccorporatist posts\u201d\u2014formal updates tied to speeches and events, which were met with muted engagement. But then, while on a 2025 business trip to Sydney, Gray experimented with a new format, one he had used on his family\u2019s group chat. To stay connected with his wife and four daughters, Gray often records quick travel videos of famous landmarks \u201cso they\u2019d remember I exist,\u201d as he later joked in an interview with fitness influencer Kate Mackz.<\/p>\n
This time, standing in front of the Sydney Opera House in running gear and AirPods, he pointed the camera at himself for 25 seconds. \u201cI try to go for a jog to clear my head and pump myself up for the day when traveling internationally,\u201d Gray wrote in the post. The reaction was immediate. Users flooded the comments with their own Sydney recommendations and running tips, and praised Gray for \u201ckeeping it real.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Oh wow, that worked,\u2019\u201d he recalls. \u201cI go to Japan, I go to Paris, I go to Bentonville, Arkansas. I can keep doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Communicating Blackstone\u2019s reach<\/p>\n
The format stuck: Gray\u2019s relentless travel schedule has effectively become a content engine for Blackstone. Now, between meetings, he pulls out his phone to talk about long\u2011term investing in Amsterdam; the rise of AI in Paris; and the importance of \u201cgross domestic happiness\u201d in Bhutan.<\/p>\n
The videos are a conversation starter in meetings, and they have even earned Gray a nickname\u2014\u201cthe Forrest Gump of LinkedIn.\u201d When he travels for conferences or business trips, he says, \u201cmost of the time, the first thing people bring up to me\u201d are the jogging clips, not the deals. \u201cI was just meeting with some clients from Canada, and they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, my God, will you run when you come?\u2019\u201d Like other social media influencers, he has done collaborations, including one with Lazard CEO Peter Orszag during a trip to South Florida.<\/p>\n
Gray\u2019s posts are usually unpolished, slightly breathless\u2014he is running, after all\u2014and highly effective. His Blackstone team tells Fortune the operation is relatively low-lift: no coaching, no prep calls, no talking points laid out before he hits record. \u201cIt\u2019s really just all him,\u201d Blackstone\u2019s Anderson tells Fortune.<\/p>\n
Gray usually films in selfie mode, holding his phone at arm\u2019s length. Occasionally, his wife, friends, or colleagues lend a hand. \u201cPeople really like the authenticity of it and the fact that they know it\u2019s really coming from Jon,\u201d Anderson adds, at Blackstone\u2019s Manhattan office. \u201cThat was a little bit of the unlock in the beginning, too,\u201d she observes, turning to Gray, \u201cbecause you look like you\u2019d be coming off a long flight. You\u2019re a little disheveled, you\u2019re sweating. It was just so real.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an effective communications strategy for Blackstone\u2014and for Gray\u2019s own profile as an executive\u2014that also happens to be very cheap. \u201cObviously, the cost is not very high to go like this,\u201d Gray says, holding up his phone. \u201cAnd it works.\u201d<\/p>\n
While compliance rules for the financial firm\u2019s external communications still apply, the legal inspection and green-lighting process generally takes just a few hours. Besides, \u201cmost of the time, I\u2019d be jogging anyway,\u201d Gray says. \u201cIt\u2019s probably motivated me a little more, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray\u2019s \u2018dorky dad\u2019 social media style<\/p>\n
Part of Gray\u2019s appeal is that he leans into his quirks. \u201cThere is a little bit of what I describe as my dorky dad vibes,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s maybe the way my girls would say it. But that\u2019s sort of who I am, a little bit overly optimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
His daughters are also some of his toughest critics. Gray often sends draft videos to both his family\u2019s and Blackstone team\u2019s group chats for review. \u201cThey have insights,\u201d Gray says of his children. \u201cThey\u2019ll say to me, \u2018Hey, the background wasn\u2019t so good,\u2019 or \u2018The lighting wasn\u2019t so good,\u2019 or \u2018You should hold the camera better. You\u2019re holding it down, you\u2019re getting too much extra chin there.\u2019 They\u2019re much better at this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes, his success has surprised his daughters. \u201cWhen I told my girls that Kate Mackz had asked me to run, they\u2019re like, \u2018Why would she want to run with you?\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cMeanwhile, if you go on Instagram, it has like two and a half million views.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson says the magic lies in Gray\u2019s willingness to poke fun at himself. \u201cHe\u2019s uniquely good at this,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you have a CEO who this doesn\u2019t come naturally to, it\u2019s very hard.\u201d Gray\u2019s lack of self-consciousness is an asset, he says: \u201cIf I stumble on some words, if I\u2019m out jogging, sweating\u2014the more authentic, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n
For executives hoping to copy Gray\u2019s success, he offers a simple formula: \u201cGood background, a bit of humor, self-deprecation is very good. And then if you can have a nugget of information, advice, or insights, and you wrap that together and try to keep it to 90 seconds or less, that\u2019s what you\u2019re trying to do, but it does have to be authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray has become the go-to for video, often serving as an on-camera host for more polished explainers of Blackstone\u2019s quarterly earnings. \u201cHe\u2019ll do a maximum of three takes, and usually, he gets it in the first take,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty quick, the whole filming takes us about seven to 10 minutes.\u201d He also helps to produce the firm\u2019s elaborate holiday video, now an annual viral tradition.<\/p>\n
But he and Anderson have found that heavily produced studio content routinely underperforms in comparison to the spontaneous running clips. \u201cIf we do something highly produced, and we spend a lot of time in the studio, we reach fewer people,\u201d Gray says. \u201cSome of these [running videos] may reach more people than when we go on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray is not the only Blackstone executive tapped to star on social media. His boss, 79-year-old billionaire, Blackstone cofounder, and CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman, also creates social-first videos with his team, offering leadership and business advice for nearly six years on LinkedIn to his more than 400,000 followers. The chief executive even recently collaborated with TikToker Max Klymenko, the creator behind the viral Career Ladder series, for a video now topping 4 million views.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Jon Gray\u2019s LinkedIn playbook<\/p>\n
While most of Gray\u2019s videos appear to be spontaneous, there\u2019s a genuine business strategy behind them, and it\u2019s a playbook more Fortune 500 executives are scrambling to replicate. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, in our business, when you\u2019re investing capital on behalf of others, you\u2019re a steward of capital, you\u2019re really in the trust business,\u201d Gray says. \u201cBeing able to communicate with your clients directly, your shareholders, and show them who you are and what matters to you in a direct way, that\u2019s very helpful, and that\u2019s what this has become.\u201d<\/p>\n
LinkedIn editor-in-chief Daniel Roth says Gray\u2019s approach has become a model for other leaders. \u201cThere is a ton of demand for these executive voices because they\u2019re authentic,\u201d he says. \u201cExecutives trying to figure out how to be heard, in a very noisy market, see that other executives are having success doing it, and so they start doing it themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Timothy Pollock, a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, isn\u2019t surprised that Gray\u2019s videos draw such massive audiences. He argues that executives are now effectively celebrities, like movie stars and athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy does what time they wake up or when they do their workout matter to them doing their job?\u201d he asks. \u201cBut that\u2019s what people love, because we live vicariously through our heroes. Business executives increasingly, for better or worse, play that role in society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blackstone\u2019s social media model<\/p>\n
Given the positive reception on LinkedIn, it\u2019s no surprise that other executives\u2014and their communications teams\u2014have taken notice, reaching out to Anderson, Gray says: \u201cA lot of other firms [ask], \u2018How did you get Jon to do this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Ted Merz, a former journalist and now the founder of digital-first storytelling firm Principals Media, specializes in ghostwriting services for CEOs and executives, and says Gray has become a \u201cvery important figure\u201d in the executive communications world. \u201cHe\u2019s now super-famous among corporates for what he does with the running videos,\u201d Merz tells Fortune. The videos, Merz says, have also raised the bar for other executives. \u201cIf Jon Gray can do it, and he\u2019s pretty busy, what is your excuse?\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray says he has no plans to slow down anytime soon: \u201cAt some point, when I\u2019ve jogged in enough places and people are like, \u2018Enough already,\u2019 we\u2019ll find something else to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Meet #Blackstones #accidental #influencer #LinkedIn #jogs #Wall #Streets #mustwatch #content<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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