Jeff T. Blau is Chief Executive Officer and a Partner of Related Companies where he is responsible for leading the company’s $70 billion portfolio of assets owned and under development, spanning virtually every sector of the real estate industry. Mr. Blau has been with Related Companies for more than 35 years, first joining as an analyst in 1990 and having worked his way up to Partner before being named CEO in 2012 by Founder Stephen Ross.
In his role as CEO, Mr. Blau sets the strategic direction for the company’s growth and expansion. He is also responsible for overall management of the firm, the pursuit of new development and business opportunities, corporate acquisitions and financing activities across all business platforms. Some of the firm’s signature accomplishments championed by Mr. Blau include the development of Deutsche Bank Center (formerly Time Warner Center) and Hudson Yards, which is the largest private real estate development in the history of the United States.
Under Mr. Blau’s leadership, the firm remains deeply committed to its roots and commitment to developing and preserving affordable housing. The company today owns and manages more than 61,000 units of affordable and workforce housing and is currently developing Willets Point, New York City’s largest all-affordable housing development in 40 years, with 2,500 units of new housing underway, as well as redeveloping NYCHA’s Fulton & Elliott Chelsea Houses.
Mr. Blau is the Chairman and Founding Partner of energyRe, an energy company established in 2019 out of Related’s sustainability practices that develops innovative infrastructure projects and is a leader in utility-scale transmission, generation, storage and distributed generation solutions, with 16 GWs under development across the United States.
In early 2025, Mr. Blau formally announced the launch of Related Digital which, today, is a leading vertically integrated data center development and investment platform with a $45 billion development pipeline of more than 6 GWs of near-term power across the U.S. and Canada. The firm has partnered with leading hyperscale companies and currently has data center projects underway in Ontario, Wyoming, Michigan and Missouri.
Mr. Blau’s philanthropic and civic contributions include a wide range of organizations. In 2014, he and his wife, Lisa, established the Blau Family Foundation, which provides grants to organizations that focus on education, health, arts and culture. In 2020, they announced the Jeff and Lisa Blau Adolescent Consultation Center for Resilience and Treatment at Mount Sinai, a clinical and research platform to increase understanding of psychiatric illness, particularly schizophrenia.
Mr. Blau serves on the Board of Directors of Equinox Holdings, Inc., Sun Communities (NYSE: SUI), Robin Hood Foundation, The Wharton Graduate School, The University of Michigan, Lincoln Center, The Mount Sinai Medical Center, the New York City Partnership Fund and the Real Estate Roundtable.
Over the years, Mr. Blau has received numerous honors for his business, civic and philanthropic activities. He was named to Crain’s New York’s New Influentials list of 25 leaders reshaping New York and Commercial Observer’s Power 100.
Mr. Blau completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan and received a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
