By Ben Dummett
BlackRock Inc. on Thursday appointed Marcia Moffat to head its
Canadian operations, betting the executive's experience in the
local retail investment sector will help the fund giant grow in the
Canadian market.
New York-based BlackRock is expected to announce the appointment
later Thursday.
Ms. Moffat most recently ran a management consulting firm
focused on the financial-services sector. Before that she spent 12
years as an executive at Royal Bank of Canada, most recently
serving as head of the lender's retail-banking division.
She succeeds Noel Archard, who is leaving the money manager
after heading the Canadian operations for three years.
BlackRock oversees about $135.6 billion in assets in Canada
through its offerings to retail and institutional investors of its
iShares Exchange Traded Funds, mutual funds and fixed-income
products, making it one of Canada's largest money managers.
Globally, BlackRock's assets under management total $4.721
trillion. Its biggest operations are in the U.S., but it also
operates in Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and
Africa.
In Canada, BlackRock is best known for its ETFs. Mr. Archard
focused on diversifying the money manager's product portfolio into
fixed income and alternative funds to win business as Canadian
lender Bank of Montreal and other players entered the ETF
market.
Now it's betting on Ms. Moffat's knowledge of Canada's retail
financial-services sector to spearhead new initiatives as Canadians
face increasing pressure to boost savings to help them meet their
retirement needs.
Ms. Moffat's "deep roots in the Canadian retail sector of the
financial services industry positions her, and the firm, well for
the next leg of growth in Canada, Robert Fairbairn, BlackRock's
senior management director, said.
Write to Ben Dummett at ben.dummett@wsj.com
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