BlackRock has hired Mark Wiseman, currently president and chief executive of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, as a senior managing director and a member of its Global Executive Committee.
Wiseman, who joined CPPIB in 2005 and became the Canadian pension's head in 2012, will assume his new role at BlackRock in September.
This will involve heading the private equity firm's global active equity business, through which he will oversee a team responsible for investing over $275 billion in equity-based strategies.
He will also serve as chairman of the BlackRock Global Investment Committee, the GEC sub-committee that provides governance and oversight of investment performance, drives collaboration and builds alignment on business growth and development plans.
In addition, he will serve as chairman of BlackRock Alternative Investors, supporting BAI co-heads Mark McCombe and Matt Botein, who will continue to lead BlackRock’s alternatives platform. The unit comprises hedge funds, private equity, real assets, private credit, commodities and alternative solutions.
Wiseman will report to Robert Kapito, president of BlackRock.
“Having undertaken a multi-year effort to rebuild BlackRock’s active equity capabilities, we are pleased with our progress and believe Mark can help us continue to drive meaningful results for clients,” Kapito said in a statement. “He will also be able to make substantial contributions to our alternatives platform and across the firm.”
In February, BlackRock merged its infrastructure and real estate business into a unified real assets group led by Jim Barry, head of infrastructure. It is unclear whether Wiseman is replacing someone or whether this is a newly created position.
Earlier this month, BlackRock lost two of the original founding members of its European infrastructure debt team – Chris Wrenn and Philippe Benaroya – leaving Gilles Lengaigne as the European team’s only remaining founder.
BlackRock had not responded to a request for comment by press time.
While Wiseman will not join the firm before early September, he will be relinquishing his role at CPPIB in mid-June.
On Thursday, CPPIB announced that it had chosen senior managing director and head of international Mark Machin to replace Wiseman. Machin will assume the position of president and chief executive on 13 June.
“Mark Machin has been instrumental in helping to shape and execute CPPIB’s strategy over the last four years, consistently demonstrating deep knowledge of our business, understanding of global opportunities and a commitment to our unique mandate and culture,” said Heather Munroe-Blum, CPPIB’s board chairperson.
Machin joined CPPIB in March 2012 after spending 20 years at Goldman Sachs, where he most recently served as vice chairman of Asia ex-Japan. In the four years since he joined the Canadian pension, he has been responsible for the pension’s international investment activities, managing global advisory relationships and leading the organisation internationally.
“There is an impressive depth of senior leadership talent within CPPIB, and multiple qualified internal candidates had been identified in the context of our ongoing succession development processes,” Munroe-Blum said. “Following a thorough process, the Board unanimously agreed that Mark Machin was the ideal choice to lead the organization through the next chapter of its mandate.”
Wiseman informed the board of his intended departure early this year, according to CPPIB.
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