Canadian Pension Fund Chief to Join BlackRock -- 2nd Update
May 19 2016 - 2:01PM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Krouse and Ben Dummett
BlackRock Inc. is adding the chief of Canada's largest pension
plan to its ranks of top leaders.
Mark Wiseman will join the world's largest money manager in
September as head of global active equity, charged with leading a
continuing turnaround of its stock-picking unit. He will also
become chairman of the firm's global investment committee -- a
subunit of its executive committee -- and chairman of its
alternatives business, BlackRock said Thursday.
Mr. Wiseman has worked closely with BlackRock chief Laurence
Fink in recent years on an initiative called Focusing Capital on
the Long Term. That effort, backed by a number of large investors,
promotes corporate governance and strategies focused on the
long-term over initiatives aimed at boosting short-term earnings
and stock-price gains.
The appointment adds muscle to BlackRock's alternatives
business, an area it has tried to grow in recent years, and marks
the latest step in a yearslong effort by BlackRock to improve
performance in its actively managed equity funds.
Earlier this year, the $4.7 trillion asset manager combined its
traditional and quantitative equity funds into one group that it
said in January would be managed by executives Chris Jones, Nigel
Bolton, Raffaele Savi and Jeff Shen. Messrs. Bolton, Savi and Shen
will now become co-chief investment officers of global active
equity at the firm, while Mr. Jones is leaving "to pursue other
opportunities," a spokesman said.
Mr. Wiseman, 46 years old, was named president and chief
executive of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in 2012 after
joining the pension plan in 2005. The 278.9 billion Canadian dollar
(about $212.6 billion) fund invests in foreign and domestic stocks,
bonds, real estate and infrastructure. Its assets increased by more
than C$100 billion with Mr. Wiseman at the helm.
The CPPIB executive's departure comes as the Canadian fund
posted a 3.4% net investment gain for the fiscal year ended March
31, outperforming a 1% decline in the fund's internal benchmark.
Canada's pension funds measure themselves against internal
benchmarks because of their widespread exposure to public and
private holdings.
The performance against the benchmark "was by far the best ...
the fund has ever had," Mr. Wiseman said Thursday.
CPPIB and Canada's other large pension funds have built
reputations as being some of the biggest global investors, in part
by establishing offices in the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America
for high-profile deals. The pension funds use their foreign
locations to identify local partners and expertise to give them an
edge in identifying potential investments.
About 81% of CPPIB's assets are invested outside Canada. That
includes its $12 billion acquisition last year of General Electric
Co.'s private-equity lending unit and its deal last month to
acquire a 40% stake in the agricultural business of commodities
giant Glencore PLC.
During Mr. Wiseman's tenure as chief executive, CPPIB
established offices in New York, Brazil and India. It also has
locations in Toronto, where the fund is based, and in Hong Kong,
London and Luxembourg.
"CPPIB's international strategy bloomed under Mark Wiseman's
leadership, " Heather Munroe-Blum, the fund's chairwoman, said in a
release.
Mr. Wiseman will work in New York and travel frequently,
returning to Toronto on the weekends. He will report to President
Robert Kapito.
The chairman post for BlackRock's investment committee has
rotated among various members of the firm's executive committee in
the past, but Mr. Wiseman will now be its permanent leader.
Mr. Fink said in a statement that Mr. Wiseman had "deep
experience in both public and private capital markets globally --
having worked with and driven strong investment results for some of
the biggest and most sophisticated pools of investment capital in
the world."
Mr. Wiseman will leave the Canadian fund in June, but he will
remain as a senior adviser to the board until early September. Mark
Machin, currently senior managing director and head of CPPIB's
international operations, takes over as chief executive in June. He
joined the fund in 2012 after a 20-year career at Goldman Sachs
Group Inc.
Write to Sarah Krouse at sarah.krouse@wsj.com and Ben Dummett at
ben.dummett@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 19, 2016 13:46 ET (17:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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