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Wesley Edens

Wesley (Wes) Edens co-founded Fortress Investment Group in 1998 and previously served as its co-CEO. Fortress built investment businesses in real estate and other sectors, alongside ownership and development of transportation and infrastructure assets. Edens later founded New Fortress Energy and has also backed Brightline, the privately operated passenger rail system in Florida. New Fortress Energy biography

Updated

Known For

  • Co-founding Fortress Investment Group in 1998 and helping build a global alternative-investment manager with a substantial real estate business.
  • Founding New Fortress Energy in 2014, where he currently serves as CEO, and investing in energy infrastructure as a separate line of work from his real estate career.
  • Supporting Brightline, the privately operated passenger-rail network that began service in Florida and later developed a second corridor toward Las Vegas.

Career

Before Fortress, Edens was a partner and managing director at Lehman Brothers and then BlackRock, where he led a private-equity fund. He co-founded Fortress in 1998 and served as co-CEO. Fortress's investment businesses included real estate, health care, financial services, media, and entertainment, and its portfolio included transportation and infrastructure projects. In 2023, Fortress announced a transition to new co-CEOs under its joint ownership with Mubadala; Edens continued to oversee the firm's private-equity and permanent-capital-vehicle businesses, including Brightline. He founded New Fortress Energy in 2014 and remains its CEO. The profile distinguishes his current energy-company leadership from his earlier real estate and alternative-investment work.

Real Estate Connection

Edens' real estate connection is primarily through Fortress's real estate investment-management platform and portfolio companies, rather than a single operating property firm that he currently runs. The 2023 ownership announcement said Tom Pulley would continue as CEO of Fortress's global real estate business. Accordingly, current Fortress real estate operations should be attributed to that leadership team, while Edens' page records his founding role and broader strategic influence.

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