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BlackRock on Tuesday added 20 of its top leaders to its global executive committee, which plays a vital role in shaping strategy for the world’s largest asset manager.
The company appointed executives including Sarah Melvin, who heads BlackRock’s European business, and Mike Pyle, who helps set its investment strategy across financial markets, to the powerful panel, according to a letter from chief executive Larry Fink and president Rob Kapito seen by the Financial Times.
“This expansion reflects our commitment to evolving with purpose and unlocking the full potential of talent across the firm,” Fink and Kapito wrote. “We view this as part of an ongoing refinement of our leadership structure — one that ensures we remain responsive to our clients, our people and the opportunities ahead.”
Vice-chair Mark McCombe, who has been responsible for managing key client relationships for BlackRock, will retire early next year.
The New York-based group also appointed Stacey Mullin, BlackRock’s deputy chief operating officer, and Jaime Magyera, who runs the group’s US wealth and retirement unit, to the panel.
Kapito, who co-founded the asset manager with Fink and BlackRock director Susan Wagner in 1988, chairs the committee. In their letter, Fink and Kapito wrote that the decision to broaden the council stemmed in part from BlackRock’s explosive growth over the past decade.
At the end of June, the firm managed $12.5tn in assets, more than double from a decade ago. Fink has also just completed a trio of mega-acquisitions that he hopes will position BlackRock for the rise of private markets, buying investment firms Global Infrastructure Partners and HPS Investment Partners, and the data provider Preqin.
Alongside the promotions, BlackRock also reshuffled another key committee that steers its business. Chief operating officer Rob Goldstein and chief financial officer Martin Small were appointed co-chairs of BlackRock’s global operating committee.
The two men are seen as top contenders to lead the asset management behemoth when Fink, 72, eventually retires. Their promotions to an important committee were seen as cementing their status in that race, a person familiar with the matter said.
Fink and Kapito also wrote that they were “formalising” a management committee, consisting of the senior-most members of its business. That group includes Goldstein and Small, as well as Rachel Lord, the head of BlackRock’s international business, and Adebayo Ogunlesi and Scott Kapnick, who joined through the GIP and HPS acquisitions, respectively.
“This group will help define BlackRock’s long-term vision, strategy, culture and principles,” the two-men said.
BlackRock declined to comment.
