Robert S. Kapito

Robert Steven Kapito (born February 8, 1957) is an American businessman and investor. He is a founder and President of the New York City-based investment management firm, BlackRock.

Born into a Jewish family, Kapito earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts (HBS) in 1983 after completing a BS degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.Kapito met his wife Ellen when she was a student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Kapito joined First Boston in 1979 after graduating from theWharton School of the University of Pennsylvaniaand started in the Public Finance Department. He met his future business partner, Laurence D. Fink, at First Boston where they were instrumental in pioneering the mortgage-backed security market in the United States.

Kapito left First Boston to complete his MBA degree and returned to the firm in 1983 in the Mortgage Products Group. In 1982, Kapito worked as a strategy consultant with Bain & Co. and with two private companies in Europe.

Kapito eventually served at Head of Trading and Vice President of the mortgage-backed security Products Group.

In 1988, Kapito left First Boston along with Laurence D. Fink and founded BlackRock under the umbrella of the private equity firm Blackstone Group where they joined as partners. In 1992, BlackRock was spun out from Blackstone and became an independent company.

Today, BlackRock is the world's largest asset management firm with over $6.2 trillion in assets under management. BlackRock currently manages over $3.5 trillion of assets across equity, fixed income, real estate, liquidity and alternative strategies. Through BlackRock Solutions, the Firm provides risk management and enterprise investment services for approximately $9 trillion of assets.

Today Kapito is President and a Director of BlackRock, is Chairman of the Global Operating Committee, a member of the Global Executive Committee, and Chairman of the Americas Executive Committee. He is responsible for day-to-day oversight of BlackRock's key operating units, including the Portfolio Management, Alternative Investment, Global Client Group, Risk & Quantitative Analysis and BlackRock Solutions. Mr. Kapito is also a Director of iShares Inc.

Prior to assuming his current responsibilities in 2007, Kapito served as Head of BlackRock's Portfolio Management Group. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing all portfolio management within BlackRock, including the Fixed Income, Equity, Liquidity, and Alternative Investment Groups.

Kapito serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and as a member of a Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education Faculty. He is also President of the Board of Directors for the Hope & Heroes Children's Cancer Fund and President of the Board of Directors for Periwinkle Theatre for Youth, a national non-profit arts-in-education organization.

Kapito serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Joseph H. Lookstein Ramaz School, is the recipient of 2009 Joseph Wharton Leadership Award and the 2010 Semper Fidelis Award from the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. In 2012, he received the Gustave L. Levy Award from the United Jewish Appeal Federation of New York for his donations.