BlackRock Names BuzzFeed Executive as Chief Marketing Officer
December 05 2016 - 2:40PM
Dow Jones News
BlackRock Inc. has hired a new global chief marketing officer
from digital media company BuzzFeed as the world's largest money
manager works to bolster its business from individual
investors.
Frank Cooper, who spent the last 18 months as chief marketing
officer and chief creative officer at BuzzFeed, plans to join the
New York asset manager in January, according to an internal memo
seen by The Wall Street Journal.
He will report to Chief Executive Laurence Fink, who sent the
internal memo and highlighted Mr. Cooper's experience using "new
marketing technologies to help organizations—from global consumer
companies to technology startups—to drive growth." Mr. Cooper is
set to lead a marketing team that focuses on research and
analytics, digital marketing and branding, the memo said.
At BuzzFeed Mr. Cooper oversaw a creative services team and
helped create sponsored content. He joined BuzzFeed after more than
a decade at PepsiCo Inc. and worked previously at AOL, Warner Bros.
and as an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles.
BlackRock started as an institutional money-management business
and has tried in recent years to diversify its business mix and
find new ways to sell funds to retail investors. The firm is
currently focused on gathering more assets from these retail, or
individual investors, in part by using its proprietary Aladdin
investment and risk-management technology.
Retail assets represented 12% of assets under management at
BlackRock at the end of the third quarter, but 34% of its
traditional investment fees. Its iShares exchange-traded fund unit
accounted for 26% of assets and 37% of fees with its institutional
business representing the balance.
The firm has decentralized some of its reporting lines in recent
months with heads of the firm's regional retail businesses
reporting to local executives in Europe, Asia and the Americas,
rather than one global head.
Mr. Cooper will join BlackRock's Global Executive Committee. He
partly succeeds the company's longtime global head of marketing and
communications, Linda Robinson, who is moving to a vice chairman
role, the firm told employees in April.
Global Head of Corporate Communications Jim Badenhausen, who has
also served as interim chief marketing officer for the last two
years and previously reported to Ms. Robinson, will now report to
Mr. Fink.
Write to Sarah Krouse at sarah.krouse@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 05, 2016 14:25 ET (19:25 GMT)
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