BlackRock Taps CPPIB's Wiseman As Global Active Equity Head

Global alternative asset giant BlackRock has named former Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) chief Mark Wiseman as head of the firm’s global active equity business and member of its executive committee, an exclusive group of senior executives that advise BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and president Rob Kapito.

Wiseman will leave CPPIB in June and will start with BlackRock in September, according to a statement. He will also become chairman of BlackRock’s global investment committee and lend support to BlackRock Alternative Investors. He will report to Kapito. 

As head of global active equity, Wiseman will oversee more than 350 portfolio management and business professionals across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific regions, and will be responsible for investing over $275 billion in equity-based investment strategies. As chairman of BlackRock Alternative Investors, he will also support the firm’s alternatives platform, which spans hedge funds, private equity, real assets, private credit, commodities, and alternative solutions.

Wiseman joins BlackRock from CPPIB, where he has served as president & CEO since 2012. The pension fund manages approximately C$280 billion on behalf of the Canada Pension Plan and its 19 million contributors and beneficiaries. Prior to joining CPPIB in 2005, Wiseman was responsible for the private equity fund and co-investment program at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Previously, he was an officer with Harrowston, a publicly traded Canadian merchant bank and a lawyer with Sullivan & Cromwell.

BlackRock is the world’s largest asset management firm. It manages more than $4.737 trillion deployed across a comprehensive range of alternative assets, mutual funds, ETFs, and other pooled investment vehicles.