Head
BlackRock Solutions
[15]
Asset management giant BlackRock established BlackRock Solutions in 2000 to sell its proprietary technology to outside clients. In 2010 the unit generated $460 million in revenue — down slightly from 2009 but more than double its 2007 total — and accounted for 5 percent of BlackRock’s total revenue. Robert Goldstein, 37, joined BlackRock Solutions at the start and has headed it since 2009; he has presided over organic growth in sales of the flagship Aladdin investment management platform, advisory services related to the U.S. government’s financial crisis bailouts and integration work following BlackRock’s 2009 acquisition of Barclays Global Investors. The ongoing integration has changed BGI staffers’ approach to managing money, says Goldstein, because operating on a single, global platform “gives people more freedom.” BlackRock enhanced its portfolio construction and trading systems, enabling managers to execute trading ideas across hundreds of portfolios regardless of individual account restrictions or customizations. Goldstein says BlackRock’s scale creates a competitive advantage in that its customers and partners are interconnected with automated trading and other work flows: “The other players in the ecosystem have an enormous desire to make sure they are in lockstep with us.”
