BlackRock overhauls APAC leadership
The world's biggest fund manager has revamped its senior APAC leadership in a move that sees a former BT executive elevated to co-deputy head of the region.
First up, BlackRock has named Susan Chan head of Asia Pacific, replacing Rachel Lord, who will take on the role of head of international.
Chan was promoted to the top APAC job after spending two years as deputy head of Asia Pacific. as well as head of Greater China and head of trading, liquidity & lending for the region.
She will lead the Asia Pacific region and oversee the full range of business, client, investment and operational platforms serving wealth and institutional investors via BlackRock's active, index, ETFs, alternatives and technology offerings.
During her ten years at BlackRock, she has run the ETF and index investing business, managed the trading, liquidity and securities lending team, supervised the sustainable and transition investing group and turbocharged BlackRock's onshore business in mainland China.
Chan joined the firm in Hong Kong in 2013 as head of iShares capital markets and products for Asia Pacific before becoming head of ETFs and index investing, a role she held until 2021.
She currently sits on several BlackRock committees, including BlackRock's Global Executive Committee and the Global Markets Committee.
Before joining BlackRock, she was head of equity structuring, strategic equity transactions and DBx Asia Pacific at Deutsche Bank.
Earlier, Chan held several leadership roles at Barclays Capital Asia, the most recent being head of equity and funds structured for Asia Pacific.
Interestingly, the deputy head role will be shared by head of Australasia, Andrew Landman and head of APAC institutional and head of North Asia, Hiroyuki Shimizu.
As a consequence of splitting the role, Landman will expand his role to also oversee Southeast Asia and the APAC wealth business.
Shimizu will continue to lead the Asia Pacific institutional business while expanding his remit to cover Taiwan.
The two deputies are highly experienced.
Before joining BlackRock, Landman served as chief executive of Ascalon Capital Managers, a subsidiary of BT Financial Group, and held senior roles at Challenger, among other firms.
Shimizu joined BlackRock in 2022 from Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where he ran alternatives distribution globally and managed the firm's Japan and South Korea businesses.
He has held various leadership roles at KKR and Goldman Sachs, managing capital markets, private markets distribution, structured credit sales, and derivative sales.
Finally, the series of staff changes sees Asia Pacific head of wealth James Raby becomes chief operating officer for the region, with Hua Fan set to be the new China lead.
Chan said her leadership team is sharply focused on accelerating the momentum in the region to achieve the best investment outcomes for our clients.
"This requires a thorough understanding of their needs, along with the ability to connect them to new and differentiated investment opportunities across our entire platform."
