Blackstone Exec Builds Vacation Empire With Luxury in Outdoors

“In order to be successful, you have to be totally focused on what’s going on around you,” Chad Pike says during a drive from the Colorado mountain town of Crested Butte to the nearby banks of the Taylor River.

Although Pike, 43, is talking about his favorite hobby -- fly-fishing -- his theory could apply to any of his endeavors: heli-skiing in remote pockets of Iceland, say, or helping oversee the $5 billion–plus Tactical Opportunities Fund of private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP, where he serves as senior managing director and vice chairman of Blackstone Europe.