Who is steering the iShares ship?
With Salim Ramji moving to take the role of CEO of Vanguard, iShares has outlined a new management structure.
It was announced earlier this month that Ramji would be joining global passive giant Vanguard as its new chief executive, replacing Tim Buckley.
Ramji has more than 25 years’ experience, including a decade at BlackRock where he was the global head of iShares and index investing. Prior to this, he was the head of US wealth advisory at BlackRock.
Asked who would be his successor, BlackRock said in a statement that a new management structure has been implemented.
iShares has over 1,400 products and US$3.7 trillion in assets under management.
Rather than a direct replacement for Ramji, the firm has created a global product strategy group led by Stephen Cohen as chief product officer and has also promoted Rachel Lord as head of international business across EMEA and Asia-Pacific.
Cohen has been BlackRock’s head of EMEA since April 2021 and previously led the wealth and index investment business in EMEA. Meanwhile, Lord was previously the firm’s chair and head of Asia-Pacific.
The two appointments are part of the firm’s succession planning ahead of the eventual departure of Larry Fink, who founded the company in 1988 and is its chief executive.
Fink said this group “will sharpen our commercial focus on active and private markets strategies and help deliver high-performing products to our clients in those areas”.
“It will develop innovative new strategies where our clients are looking to allocate capital in their portfolios, and it will help us better respond to client demand for customised solutions.”
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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