BlackRock has appointed Tomoko Ueda as chief operating officer (COO) for Asia Pacific.
Ueda will oversee all business operations in the region and lead the firm’s finance, corporate strategy and development teams.
She will report to head of Asia Pacific, Susan Chan, and relocate from Tokyo to Hong Kong to take up the role, effective on 3 September.
She succeeds James Raby, who is relocating from Hong Kong to New York in order to take up the role of global head of compliance. Raby was appointed as APAC head of wealth in January 2023 and has worked at the US firm since December 2009.
Ueda first joined BlackRock in 2022 as Asia Pacific head of corporate strategy and development to formulate the firm’s strategy and execute against strategic priorities, while pursuing partnership opportunities in Asia Pacific.
Prior to BlackRock, she worked at Nikko Asset Management in Japan and previously held leadership roles at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.
Chan said: “She has demonstrated exceptional leadership in driving BlackRock’s growth initiatives throughout the region to align with the structural changes taking place in the global economy. These market forces – be they digital disruption, demographic divergence, transition to a low-carbon economy or geopolitical fragmentation – are presenting us with opportunities to share our expertise and insights with clients and investors, as they rethink their portfolios to generate returns.
“We are uniquely positioned to accelerate our momentum in this part of the world, and I’m confident Tomoko will have tremendous positive impact on our long-term success.”
At the start of the year, BlackRock appointed Jason Collins as its head of Australia. This was a promotion from the position of deputy head of Australasia which he held since 2022, alongside being the head of iShares and index investments for Australia and New Zealand.
