Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
BlackRock’s top executive Mark Wiedman is leaving, in a move that disrupts the asset manager’s plans for the eventual departure of founder Larry Fink, according to four people close to the company.
Wiedman has been widely discussed as a potential successor Fink for more than a decade, most recently serving as one of the $11.5 trillion asset manager’s most prominent public faces as head of client operations.
BlackRockThe board last year described him in a regulatory filing as one of three “senior leaders we believe will play key roles in the future of BlackRock” as it awarded him a special retention package.
However, Wiedman, who led the integration and rapid growth of BlackRock’s flagship index and exchange-traded fund business, decided not to wait. His departure is expected to be announced very soon, the people said. He is losing $8 million in stock options, according to the proxy.
Wiedman’s departure comes after the world’s largest asset manager embarked on a $28 billion acquisition spree last year to increase its footprint in the fast-growing and lucrative alternative assets sector. The strategic moves not only put pressure on Fink, 72, to personally oversee their success, but also brought in a bevy of powerful and well-paid executives to manage carefully.
Fink, who has led BlackRock since its founding in 1988, is very popular among investors and is among the most influential people in finance. But analysts and some inside the company began to express concern will the slow pace of succession planning force the next generation of top talent to start going elsewhere. BlackRock chairman Rob Kapito (67) is also the founder of the company.
BlackRock did not respond to requests for comment.
Wiedman leaves almost exactly a year after Salim Ramji, another CEO who was also once touted as a potential leader. Ramji became CEO of Vanguard, BlackRock’s main rival in the US and the world’s second largest asset manager. Several other lower-ranking executives have also left in recent years to take top jobs at smaller firms, including Daniel Gamba at Northern Trust and Zach Buchwald at Russell Investments.
After Ramji left, the group touted its strong stable of current leaders, including Wiedman and two other executives who also received special boosts: chief operating officer Robert Goldstein and chief financial officer Martin Small.
“BlackRock is proud to have a track record of alumni from our firm who have led multiple investment management firms and financial institutions,” it previously said.
A senior Wall Street person with knowledge of the situation said: “Larry [Fink] and Rob [Kapito] they are not going anywhere. They just made a big acquisition and you have to experience it, [but] Wiedman is at an age where if he doesn’t step up, he’ll stop being a CEO.”
A lawyer by training, Wiedman joined BlackRock in 2004 after working at the US Treasury Department and McKinsey. He launched BlackRock’s financial markets advisory division, which helped central banks and government agencies dig through the rubble of the 2008 financial crisis.
In 2009, Wiedman negotiated the acquisition and integration of Barclays Global Investors, a deal widely considered the most important in BlackRock’s history. He then ran the spin-off iShares business from 2011 to 2019, which grew into a powerhouse in indexes and ETFs.
Strongly interested in talent development, Wiedman has hired or promoted many of BlackRock’s top executives, including Small and Rachel Lord, who heads the international business.
