BlackRock Revamps Management; Hallac Named Co-president, Goldstein New COO

(RTTNews) - Investment manager BlackRock Inc. (BLK) is reorganizing its senior management, resulting in new or expanded roles for at least ten of its senior executives and aimed at finding a successor to chairman and chief executive officer Laurence Fink. Meanwhile, Fink, and Robert Kapito, president of the company, will continue in their roles.

According to an internal memorandum by Fink and Kapito that was addressed to all employees of the company, BlackRock's chief operating officer Charles Hallac will assume a new role as co-president of BlackRock, effective June 1.

Hallac, who is battling colon cancer, was one the company's first employee in 1988 and the creator of the Aladdin trade management system. The client businesses, investment groups and product management will continue to report to Hallac and Kapito.

Fink, who is also BlackRock's co-founder, said in the internal memo, "Periodically moving leaders to new roles as part of this process was a key rationale for the reorganization of the firm in 2012 and is a key driver of the management changes we are announcing today."

Robert Goldstein, currently global head of BlackRock's Institutional Client Business or ICB and BlackRock Solutions or BRS, will become chief operating officer of the company. He will succeed Hallac. Goldstein began his career at BlackRock as an analyst in the Portfolio Analytics Group in 1994 and has played a key role in developing BRS as well as the Aladdin trading platform.

Mark McCombe, who is currently serving as chairman of BlackRock Asia Pacific or APAC, will become global head of BlackRock's ICB, based in New York. He will succeed Goldstein. To facilitate a smooth leadership transition in APAC, McCombe will continue to serve as its chairman through year-end.

In addition, McCombe will become chairman of BlackRock Alternative Investors or BAI. He will work with Andy Stewart and Matt Botein, who will continue to co-head the alternatives business, and Edwin Conway, who in addition to leading ICB in the U.S. and Canada, is responsible for the Alternative Investors Strategy Group.

Rich Kushel will become BlackRock's chief product officer. Kushel is currently head of strategic product management. He will also continue to oversee the BlackRock Investment Institute and the company's corporate governance and responsible investment team.

Ryan Stork, global head of the Aladdin business within BlackRock Solutions, will become head of BlackRock Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong. Quintin Price, who has led the revitalization of Alpha Strategies, will move to New York.

Ken Wilson, who has served as chairman of BlackRock Alternative Investors since its creation, will become chairman of Alpha Strategies. Patrick Olson, currently global head of strategy and planning, will become COO of EMEA and join the EMEA Executive Committee.

Investor Relations and Corporate Development, that were part of the strategy organization, will now become part of Finance, reporting to Chief Financial Officer Gary Shedlin.

BlackRock said that Salim Ramji, a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Co., will join the company later in April as global head of corporate strategy. Sudhir Nair, currently head of business development and implementations & delivery for the Aladdin Business, will become global head of the Aladdin Institutional Business.

In mid-January, BlackRock reported a 22 percent increase in profit for the fourth quarter from last year, as the company benefited from growth in assets under management.

Net income attributable to the company for the fourth quarter increased to $841 million or $4.86 per share from $690 million or $3.93 per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter rose 9 percent to $2.78 billion from $2.54 billion in the prior-year period.

As of December 31, the company's assets under management or AUM totaled $4.324 trillion, representing a growth of 14 percent from last year's $3.79 trillion.

BLK closed Friday's trading at $308.92, down $5.72 or 1.82 percent on a volume of 876,151 shares.