BlackRock

History

In 1988, Larry Fink and Robert S. Kapito left First Boston to found a company that would provide clients with asset management services from a risk management perspective. Initially, BlackRock was under the umbrella of The Blackstone Group and was called Blackstone Financial Management. Fink joined Blackstone in 1988 as a partner, along with Kapito, Ralph Schlosstein, Bennett Golub, Barbara Novick, Susan Wagner, Keith Anderson and Hugh Frater. Before joining Blackstone, Fink, Kapito, Golub, and Novick worked together at First Boston. As Managing Director at First Boston, Fink and his team pioneered the mortgage-backed securities market in the United States. Blackstone Financial Management changed its name to BlackRock Financial Management a few years later to mitigate potential confusion with other Blackstone Group affiliates and to reduce the need for certain corporate governance restrictions that had been placed on it by The Blackstone Group.

Specialties

BlackRock is one of the world's preeminent asset management firms and a premier provider of investment management, risk management and advisory services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors around the world.