Wesley LePatner had established herself in the upper echelons of private markets behemoth Blackstone, one of the most accomplished women in US finance and a rising star in New York’s social and philanthropic circles.

At Blackstone, where the company’s president Jonathan Gray championed her rise, the 43-year-old had been put in charge of its flagship property fund. The mother of two had recently joined the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in 2023 received a leadership award from one of New York’s most influential philanthropic groups, the UJA Federation.

On Monday evening, as she left the office, she was fatally shot in the lobby of Blackstone’s global headquarters, a Park Avenue office tower, one of four killed by a gunman in a spree that has sparked new alarm across New York’s financial sector.