BLK BlackRock Inc

By Dawn Lim 

A potential heir to the top job at BlackRock Inc. has been ousted from the money-management giant for failing to disclose a romantic relationship with a colleague.

Mark Wiseman, who rose from Canada's public-pension world to become a protégé to BlackRock's chief executive, Laurence Fink, was terminated for violating the company's policy.

Mr. Wiseman, together with Marcia Moffat, who has headed BlackRock's Canada business, had long been seen as a married power couple at the world's largest asset manager. The relationship that Mr. Wiseman failed to disclose was with a different BlackRock employee, said a person familiar with the matter.

His firing marks a swift fall for the man who was the face of the roughly $7 trillion indexing giant's ambitions to find new reach outside funds that track markets. He headed BlackRock's approximately $300 billion active equities business and directed the strategy for another business focused on private equity and other alternatives to stocks and bonds.

"I engaged in a consensual relationship with one of our colleagues without reporting it," Mr. Wiseman in a firm memo Thursday. "I regret my mistake and I accept responsibility for my actions."

CEO Laurence Fink and President Rob Kapito said in a separate firmwide memo, "We expect every employee to uphold the highest standards of behavior." They added: "When the firm becomes aware of a breach of policy or conduct that is not in line with our values, we move quickly and decisively to address it."

Mr. Wiseman was hired in 2016 from Canada's pension investor, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. He was among half a dozen candidates vying for the top job to succeed Mr. Fink.

He aimed high in his three-year tenure at BlackRock but fell short of aggressive targets.

His recent bid to turn BlackRock, king of the low-fee exchange-traded fund, into a private-equity titan modeled after Berkshire Hathaway has gone slower-than-expected, costing him clout atop the firm. Mr. Wisemen was hired to revamp a business that actively selects stocks it hopes will beat the market.

With Mr. Wiseman's departure, BlackRock's alternatives business will continue to be led by Edwin Conway, who heads day-to-day operations, and Jim Barry, who leads investments. The leaders of the various active equity strategies will report to Mr. Kapito while BlackRock assesses how to structure leadership over that business.

Write to Dawn Lim at dawn.lim@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 05, 2019 09:43 ET (14:43 GMT)

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