< The 2014 Tech 50: Moving Out of the Lab and Into the Cloud

Challenging times for investors — whether because of regulatory complications or asset prices moving in unexpected ways — present growth opportunities for asset management giant BlackRock and particularly BlackRock Solutions (BRS), the systems and advisory unit Robert Goldstein has headed since 2009. BlackRock “helps people understand and gain transparency into their portfolios and associated processing activities,” he explains. “Everything happening in the world, from continued liquidity challenges to the increased correlations between asset classes, comes back to transparency.” Demand from other firms for trading, analytics and risk management solutions helped push BRS’s revenue up 11 percent last year, to $577 million. Now the unit is considering extending its capabilities to a broader audience, such as financial advisers, says the 40-year-old Goldstein, who joined New York–based BlackRock as an analyst in 1994 with a BS in economics from New York State’s Binghamton University. He climbed the ranks to become global head of institutional client business in 2012 and, effective July 2014, to COO — all the while running BRS. Goldstein helped launch the unit in 2000 under the leadership of Charles Hallac, the architect of BRS’s flagship Aladdin investment platform and now co-president of BlackRock. Pursuing technology-assisted solutions to the fixed-income-liquidity puzzle, BlackRock has formed partnerships linking its Aladdin Trading Network with both MarketAxess Holdings (extended in May to include an iShares exchange-traded-funds program) and Tradeweb Markets.

 
The 2014 Tech 50

1 Dave Cross	1	3 IAN CURCIO 2011	4 FayFoto/Boston	5 Teri Pengilley
Thomas Secunda Bloomberg	Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange	Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp.	Stephen Neff Fidelity Investments	Lance Uggla Markit
6	7	8 Photographer:Charlie Simokaitis	9	10 Mark McQueen
Robert Goldstein BlackRock	David Craig Thomson Reuters	Phupinder Gill CME Group	Anna Ewing NASDAQ OMX Group	R. Martin Chavez Goldman Sachs Group
11	12	13	14	15 Christopher Elston
Deborah Hopkins Citi Ventures	Dan Mathisson Credit Suisse	Daniel Coleman KCG Holdings	Michael Spencer ICAP	Michael Bodson Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
16	17	18 Todd Plitt	19	20
Joe Ratterman BATS Global Markets	Dominique Cerutti Euronext	Ron Levi GFI Group	Gaurav Suri D.E. Shaw Group	Charles Li Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing
21 Larry Lettera/ Camera 1	22	23	24 XT	25
Lou Eccleston S&P Capital IQ	Lee Olesky Tradeweb Markets	Richard McVey MarketAxess Holdings	Seth Merrin Liquidnet Holdings	Antoine Shagoury London Stock Exchange Group
26 Production	27 Wayne R. Martin	28	29 Thorsten Jansen	30 Adam B. Auel
Christopher Perretta State Street Corp.	Kevin Rhein Wells Fargo & Co.	Peter Carr Morgan Stanley	Hauke Stars Deutsche Börse	Robert Alexander Capital One Financial Corp.
31	32	33 Paul Elledge	34	35 Stephen Brashear
David Gershon SuperDerivatives	Chris Corrado MSCI	Joseph Squeri Citadel	Tanuja Randery BT Global Services	John Bates Software AG
36	37	38	39 Photo Credit: Kevin Irby	40
Gary Scholten Principal Financial Group	David Gledhill DBS Bank	Simon Garland Kx Systems	Cristóbal Conde FinTech Innovation Lab	Jeff Parker EidoSearch
41	42 Jeff Smith Photo	43	44	45
Kim Fournais & Lars Seier Christensen Saxo Bank	Kenneth Marlin Marlin & Associates	Tyler Kim MaplesFS	Jim McGuire Charles Schwab Corp.	Jim Minnick eVestment
46	47	48 tomohisa ichiki	49 David Poultney	50 A.E. Fletcher Photography
Steven O’Hanlon Numerix	Sebastián Ceria Axioma	Yasuki Okai Nomura Research Institute	Niki Beattie Market Structure Partners	Mas Nakachi OpenGamma