You think that clown Zelensky runs Ukraine? Think again. Fat cat from BlackRock does it. The clown is just for the show.
"Larry Fink co-founded BlackRock in 1988 and has spent 35 years nursing it into the world's largest asset manager. Now, half a lifetime later, he has one big task left: deciding who will take it over.
"That's the No. 1 priority," Mr. Fink said in a recent interview. At 70 years old, he is the only person to ever hold the title of BlackRock CEO.
He and Rob Kapito, 66, BlackRock's president and a fellow co-founder, have been training five key leaders for years, a contest that some inside the company call "The Great Race."
Among the contenders are Mark Wiedman, who runs the global commercial business; Chief Operating Officer Rob Goldstein; and Chief Financial Officer Martin Small. Rachel Lord, who is head of the Asia Pacific business, and Salim Ramji, the head of ETFs and indexing products, round out the list.
Whoever replaces Mr. Fink will lead a company that most Americans know little about. Yet it is widely perceived on Wall Street and in Washington as perhaps the most influential financial firm in the country, thanks to the stakes it owns in thousands of firms around the globe and its role in managing retirement accounts for over 35 million individuals.
The next CEO must manage the growth that has made the firm so large and successful, without running afoul of the increasingly complex and volatile politics of the U.S.
Mr. Fink maintains that succession planning is less about who will replace him and more about who will become the next group of leaders. After all, Mr. Fink and Mr. Kapito started BlackRock with six other co-founders. He said he would prefer to build camaraderie among the five, and not competition, in hopes they will continue to work together after just one is crowned.
When exactly that might be isn't clear. Mr. Fink states he has no imminent plans to retire. The only absolute he will share around timing is that he would prefer to not be at BlackRock in his late 70s.That means there is ample time for his plans to change.
The job of BlackRock CEO has grown more public-facing over the past several years, with the firm taking bolder stands in voting for shareholder proposals that involve social and climate issues. Since 2018, the firm has signaled that its portfolio companies should focus on having two women on every board, answer questions around gun safety and consider climate risk an investment risk.
Conservatives in Washington argue these are liberal causes, and people who let BlackRock manage their retirement plans never consented to supporting them. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle question BlackRock's size.
The firm owns stakes in 13,000 companies and manages $8.6 trillion in assets.
BlackRock said it is driven by making sound financial decisions for its clients, and the asset-management industry is fragmented enough that its size isn't an issue.
"Where I got it wrong," Mr. Fink said, "was how quickly. . .we would become the next 'it' firm to be revered and hated."
Mr. Fink's potential successors said they would try to be more transparent about what the firm does, hoping that openness will cool some of the recent backlash.
Mr. Fink was supposed to be gone by now. When BlackRock signed a commercial lease agreement seven years ago in an unbuilt skyscraper at Hudson Yards, Mr. Fink told confidants that chances were slim he would be at the firm when the new headquarters opened. Today, Mr. Fink occupies a corner office facing 10th Avenue.
Mr. Fink said the pandemic slowed his process for choosing a successor. Some people close to Mr. Fink said he isn't ready to leave yet.
He has been traveling with his heirs apparent and sending them on trips without him. The goal, he said, is to see how they work together and how they represent the firm to clients.
In February, Mr. Fink traveled with Ms. Lord and Mr. Wiedman through Asia, visiting Hong Kong, Singapore and India in four days.
The next month, Mr. Fink sent a team of executives to Zurich as Credit Suisse Group was teetering. The group included Mr. Kapito and most of the potential successors. Their job was to assess whether they were needed for a rescue plan. They weren't.Mr. Fink called the excursion a "slam dunk" after hearing how his executives worked together in a fast-moving situation.
Recently, Mr. Fink has let Mr. Wiedman, 52, take the lead in speaking to clients about BlackRock's energy investments. Mr. Wiedman, unlike his boss, prefers to avoid the word "climate" when he can. Instead, he talks about the "transition to a low carbon economy."
"This isn't about whether you believe climate change is happening," Mr. Wiedman said. "We're in the business of taking your investment objectives and putting them to work."
Mr. Wiedman has spent much of the past eight months on the road. He visited Volvo's electric-truck testing facility in Sweden and toured a sustainable construction facility in Switzerland, among other stops, publishing videos on LinkedIn.
Mr. Goldstein, 49, helped take the lead on visits to Washington, D.C. Executives have been meeting with lawmakers, including Republican antagonists who criticized BlackRock's efforts in environmental, social and corporate-governance investing.
Mr. Fink told confidants that while he has strong relationships with financial regulators, he never had to pay much attention to legislators in Congress. Last year, BlackRock executives made more visits to Washington than ever before to meet with senators and representatives, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"You can make your own choice on whether you like us or don't like us," Mr. Goldstein said. "But at least know us and know the facts before you make that choice."
Like other asset managers, BlackRock typically votes on behalf of the investors who own the shares of portfolio companies. Critics say that allows the firm to wield an unusual amount of influence over American corporations.
BlackRock has made proxy voting available for some institutional investors. But only about a quarter of those investors elected to vote their shares.
Mr. Ramji, 52, said he would like to use technology to make voting choices simpler, which could get more investors to engage. "If Starbucks had put up a menu with 170,000 different choices, it would be an intimidating setup," he said.
He lists Germany, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore as markets where BlackRock will aim to expand its ETF offerings.
Ms. Lord, 57, has been tasked with navigating the regulatory hurdles and other challenges of doing business in China. In 2021, BlackRock became the first foreign asset manager to obtain a license from Chinese authorities to start a wholly owned onshore mutual-fund business.
But after years of Covid-containment measures, foreign businesses are now grappling with geopolitical concerns as U.S.-China ties sour.
BlackRock has 200 employees, mostly Chinese nationals, working in the Shanghai office. Ms. Lord splits her time between Hong Kong and London.
"Are foreign firms actually going to be able to build a business in China? It feels like they can, but that might change," said Ms. Lord. Still, she said it is an investment worth making.
Mr. Small, 47, became chief financial officer this year after leading the firm's U.S. wealth advisory business. He led the 2021 acquisition of Aperio, a Sausalito, Calif.-based startup that builds customized index funds for mostly high-net-worth clients.
In his new role, Mr. Small helps lead corporate strategy, which includes conducting annual reviews of each business unit and bringing those findings to the board for a yearly strategy refresh.
"There is this constructive anxiety here, a persistent phobia on whether we can be displaced," he said. "We don't want to become the firm that we set out to disrupt."
As for Mr. Fink, he doesn't think BlackRock will be his last job. He could become an adviser to early-stage companies, he said. There is also a chance he will stay on as chairman after he steps down as CEO, a scenario he had once ruled out.
"All I know," Mr. Fink said, "is that I'm not going to be sitting on a beach."" [1]
1. At BlackRock, a Race to See Who Will Succeed Fink. Au-Yeung, Angel.
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 15 May 2023: B.1.
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