BlackRock announced a series of senior management changes, including a new role for Chief Operating Officer Charles Hallac, a change in the firm's Asia-Pacific leadership and the hiring of a veteran McKinsey & Co. consultant as head of corporate strategy.
In an internal BlackRock memo Sunday obtained by Pensions & Investments, Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock's chairman and CEO, and Robert Kapito, president, called the far-reaching management reshuffle a “deliberate” ongoing effort to deepen the firm's executive “bench” by giving leaders roles that present them with “new challenges, broaden their horizons and maximize their impact with the firm and our clients.”
The memo said Mr. Hallac, who is “battling colon cancer,” will take on the role of co-president from June 1. A BlackRock employee since the firm's launch in 1988, and an architect of its Aladdin risk management system, Mr. Hallac in the new role will “assemble and lead a working group to think through how BlackRock technology can further transform our company and industry,” the memo said.
Other changes include:
- Rob Goldstein, currently the global head of BlackRock's institutional client business and BlackRock Solutions, will take on the COO role starting June 1.
- In turn, Mark McCombe, currently the Hong Kong-based chairman of BlackRock Asia Pacific, will relocate to New York in 2015 to become global head of BlackRock's institutional client business and chairman of BlackRock Alternative Solutions.
- Ryan Stork, the New York-based global head of BlackRock Solutions' Aladdin business, will become head of BlackRock Asia Pacific on June 1, re-locating to Hong Kong. Mr. McCombe, in addition to his new role, will remain chairman of BlackRock Asia Pacific through the end of 2014, at which point Mr. Stork will become chairman, Asia Pacific.
- Sudhir Nair, currently Aladdin's head of business development and implementation and delivery, will replace Mr. Stork as global head of the Aladdin institutional business.
- Meanwhile, Ken Wilson, the chairman of BlackRock Alternative Investors, will become BlackRock's chairman of alpha strategies.
- Quintin Price, a senior managing director and global head of alpha strategies, will continue to work on alpha strategies, based in New York but spending “significant time in EMEA and Asia,” according to the memo.
- Salim Ramji, a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. in New York and leader of that firm's asset management and retirement practice, will join BlackRock “later this month” as global head of corporate strategy.
- Patrick Olson, currently global head of strategy and planning, will become chief operating officer of EMEA.
- Rich Kushel, the head of BlackRock's strategic product management group, has been promoted to chief product officer.