BlackRock Taps U.S. Wealth Chief as Next CFO

BlackRock Inc. appointed Martin Small, head of the firm’s U.S. wealth advisory business, as its next chief financial officer, succeeding Gary Shedlin in a wave of senior management changes.

Small, who joined BlackRock in 2006, has also served as head of the exchange-traded funds group in the U.S. and Canada and in leadership roles in the financial markets advisory unit, the New York-based company said in a statement Monday. The move is expected to take place on or about March 1.

Shedlin, who had been an outside financial adviser to the firm and later became its CFO, will transition to become a vice chairman, working with strategic clients.

The CFO shift was one of about a half-dozen leadership changes spanning human resources, relationships with top clients and the firm’s business of investing in sustainable assets.

The shakeup comes as the world’s biggest asset manager, which oversaw $8.5 trillion at midyear, faces backlash from Republican lawmakers over its advocacy of ESG investing and from environmental advocates who say the firm isn’t doing enough to combat climate change.

“It signals they are trying to expand the breadth and depth of their management team to develop younger talent for the future,” Edward Jones analyst Kyle Sanders said in an e-mail. “This is another step to position the company for the eventual retirement of long-tenured executives” including Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink and President Rob Kapito, Sanders said.

Fink, 69, and Kapito, 64, said in a memo to employees that the changes are meant to “grow leaders in new roles across the firm,” and keeps BlackRock “more tightly connected and stimulates fresh thinking.”

Also shifting responsibilities is Mark Wiedman, who will oversee US, Canadian and global clients, marketing as well as the firm’s regional businesses in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America, according to the memo. The group will form the company’s global client business group. Wiedman, 51, will report to Kapito.