📝 The AGM Q&A with Blue Owl's CEO of Global Private Wealth Sean Connor - serving the wealth channel in 2026 and beyond
Conversations with private markets leaders
Blue Owl is one of the industry’s largest alternative asset managers and has charted an impressive growth path in the nine years since its founding. Blue Owl has scaled to almost $300B of AUM and it has proven to be one of the top firms at raising capital from the wealth channel.
In this edition of the AGM Q&A, we had the chance to sit down with Blue Owl Senior Managing Director and CEO of Global Private Wealth Sean Connor, one of Owl Rock’s early employees and the business builder behind Blue Owl’s Private Wealth business.
Sean’s career has, in some respects, mirrored Blue Owl’s evolution as a firm, which has put a focus on private wealth at the core of its DNA.
Sean is responsible for bringing the breadth of the Blue Owl investment platform to the global private wealth market. He’s at the forefront of Blue Owl’s private wealth initiatives globally and oversees fund formation, product structure innovation, capital raising, and client servicing. He also oversees business development, marketing, and operations for Private Wealth at the firm. Prior to his current role, Sean was one of the first employees at Owl Rock (now the Direct Lending division of Blue Owl) and was responsible for building out the private wealth business.
Please enjoy this Q&A with Sean, who has a wealth of knowledge and perspectives on private markets and private wealth as the firm has built one of the largest private wealth businesses in the alternative asset management space.
Serving the wealth channel
A conversation with Sean Connor, Senior Managing Director and CEO of Global Private Wealth, Blue Owl
Q: Last year was an unprecedented year of growth in private markets for the wealth channel, but markets also faced significant volatility and other headwinds. What are some important observations you’ve made and learnings to take into 2026?
In 2025, private wealth fundraising proved to be quite resilient despite market turmoil. We saw evergreen fund structures continue to gain momentum, cementing themselves as portfolio mainstays for many investors thanks to their focus on stability, consistency, and seamless access to secular growth trends. Investors’ focus sharpened on fundamentals, raising the bar for managers seeking to deliver dependable income, downside protection [1], and a partnership approach that truly earns trust. All of this unfolded against a backdrop of heightened market volatility — yet 2025 remained a landmark year for private market growth in the wealth channel overall, highlighting that alternatives can offer differentiated exposure to portfolios across market environments.
We can carry forward the learnings from 2025 into the new year as the conversation around alternatives continues to evolve from education to implementation. In an environment where diversification, higher returns, and lower volatility are paramount, education now means providing practical implementation advice and hands-on support. At the same time, a one-size-fits-all strategy no longer suffices — customization and suitability are now non-negotiable. The most successful managers are meeting clients where they are, often leveraging home office CIO guidance to integrate tailored alternative solutions into scalable, purpose-built portfolios.
Finally, the boom in non-U.S. wealth underscores that this movement is truly global. Succeeding internationally requires more than exporting a U.S. playbook; it means adding local expertise, cultural and linguistic fluency, and fully adapting to distinct local business norms. In short, last year’s experience reinforced that for wealth managers, staying client-centric, flexible, and globally attuned in their approach will be key to successfully navigating 2026 and beyond.
Q: Blue Owl has both Private Credit and Real Assets businesses, two areas experiencing significant growth. What drives your conviction in these areas, and why do you see them as the most compelling areas for investment today?
For many years, we’ve focused on building our private credit and real assets businesses. In 2025, we diversified those platforms enabling us to continue providing clients with solutions that aim to deliver durable performance and differentiated access to secular growth trends with less volatility across new sectors of these large and growing markets.
In private credit, we see two powerful, complementary opportunity sets that can be additive in client portfolios. Direct lending has become a core financing solution for larger, sponsor-backed companies where certainty of capital and speed matter. Our scale allows us to lead billion-dollar financings, be highly selective, and command strong documentation and economics.
We’ve bolstered our capabilities in private credit by entering the asset-based finance (ABF) space, opening an even broader universe of collateralized, short duration, cash flowing assets. Through ABF, clients can tap into a large addressable market with potentially attractive, differentiated risk/return and generally lower correlation within fixed income. Private capital penetration in ABF remains modest, which makes the market a potential opportunity for continued growth. At the end of the day, investments in direct lending and ABF seek to provide durable income to investors across market cycles. Importantly, we believe we operate in the least cyclical parts of the market, lending to large privately held companies, driving critical growth within the communities they serve and the economy.
Similarly in Real Assets, we’ve expanded our capabilities beyond net lease real estate into digital infrastructure, an area we believe represents a generational opportunity. Cloud adoption, AI training and inference, the proliferation of data, and latency sensitive workloads require substantial, long dated investment in power, cooling, and connectivity. We aim to partner with investment grade [2] hyperscalers on mission critical assets under long term agreements, which can provide downside protected1 exposure to a secular growth engine. We believe we offer differentiated access to this market because we are not betting on picking the next winning GPU or model. We believe we are well-positioned to be a part of this generational wave of growth from a fundamental and risk-adjusted perspective.
Q: What are the biggest differences between the wealth channel of ten years ago and the wealth channel today?
Ten years ago, the wealth channel was fragmented and severely underserved. Access often meant either expensive brokerage-oriented products or institutional feeders that were operationally cumbersome and available only to a limited set of clients. The result was high friction and low adoption.
Today, the market continues to be hard to access, but three core changes have made a large impact.
First, product design better aligns with client needs. Evergreen funds like perpetually offered BDCs, nontraded REITs, and interval funds provide continuous access, periodic liquidity, and straightforward portfolio implementation.
Second, scale and specialization matter. A small group of managers with genuine investment leadership, broad opportunity sets, and global client infrastructures drives a disproportionate share of flows, because platforms want partners who can move the needle across education, service, and product breadth.
Third, the conversation has shifted from “What are alternatives?” to “How should these strategies be implemented in portfolios?” Advisors expect a wealth-first experience: consistent reporting, responsiveness, and greater transparency. That is where we have focused: pairing durable, predictable performance with purpose-built access, so advisors can implement private investments in a way that’s repeatable, scalable, and aligned with client outcomes.
Q: Let’s talk about retirement assets. Can you share details about your partnership with Voya and how you view the expansion of alternatives in 401ks? How should investors, and the industry, be thinking about this evolution?
The defined contribution (DC) market is the missing piece in retirement access to alternatives. Pension plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) already invest in private markets; 401(k) savers have largely been excluded. We are excited to partner with a firm like Voya because they are a large, trusted leader serving millions of participants and tens of thousands of plans, with deep capabilities in plan design, target date solutions, and advisor managed accounts. Combining a scaled retirement ecosystem with Blue Owl’s institutional quality private markets capabilities is a natural fit.
This partnership matters for three reasons. First, the potential for better outcomes: income generation and downside protection align with retirement savers’ goals. Second, implementation: designing DC appropriate vehicles, integrating with plan architecture, and delivering education that is clear, balanced, and intuitive for participants. Third, responsible access: providing an opt-in pathway to private markets within diversified solutions built for long-term success. In our view, that is how you redefine access, pair the right capabilities with the right platforms, deliver certainty and scale where demand outpaces supply, and do it in a way that is durable, aligned, and built to perform across cycles.
Q: How have you thought about the brand essence of Blue Owl as the firm grows its footprint, serves a diverse client base and expands into new markets?
At Blue Owl, we have never aspired to be all things to all people, focusing instead on strong fundamentals and a disciplined investment approach. These are principles we emphasize as we grow: instead of trying to do everything, we zero in on select investment areas shaped by enduring secular trends and vast market potential, where our expertise allows us to deliver truly differentiated value to our clients.
Our growth is deliberate and strategic. We concentrate on a handful of core strategies, going deep and striving for excellence in each. We carefully choose only those arenas where we believe we can lead, then strive to execute at the highest level. By not spreading ourselves thin, we aim to achieve market-leading scale, strong performance, and durable impact in every business we enter.
As we expand our footprint and serve an increasingly global client base, we apply the same focus and intentionality. In the U.S., we work closely with major wealth management platforms, adapting to their centralized models, to deliver comprehensive solutions with the efficiency and excellence these organizations demand. Internationally, we grow with care and local insight, working alongside top local institutions, embedding teams on the ground, and investing in education to build trust in each market. This deliberate strategy has rapidly transformed our wealth business to a truly global platform, all while keeping our client-first ethos at the center.
Endnotes
[1] Investment grade companies must have “BBB-” rating or higher by S&P or an equivalent rating from a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO).
[2] Investment grade companies must have “BBB-” rating or higher by S&P or an equivalent rating from a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO).
Important Information
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This communication is for informational purposes only and is not an offer or a solicitation to sell or subscribe for any fund and does not constitute investment, legal, regulatory, business, tax, financial, accounting or other advice or a recommendation regarding Blue Owl Capital Inc. (“Blue Owl”), its affiliates and investment program, funds sponsored by Blue Owl, including the Blue Owl Credit, Real Assets, and GP Strategic Capital Funds (collectively the “Blue Owl Funds”) as well as investment held by the Blue Owl Funds.
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