Relationship costs Blackrock’s Wiseman his job
Mark wiseman, former cppib chief, contravened U. S. company’s at-work policy
TORONTO • Three years ago, Mark Wiseman left his powerful perch atop the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for a high level job at Blackrock Inc., a surprise move that put the then 45-year-old in contention to potentially one day run the world’s largest asset manager.
On Thursday, any such hopes were cut short when Blackrock abruptly announced Wiseman was leaving after violating the company’s “relationship at work” policy.
The departure marks a dramatic turn of events for Wiseman, a wunderkind of the Canadian investment world who once clerked for a future Supreme Court chief justice, was running the country’s largest pension management organization by his early 40s, and had served as an advisor to the Trudeau government on economic policy.
The ground has also shifted for Blackrock, the New York-based firm that manages nearly US$7 trillion in assets and has already lost a senior executive this year due to “personal conduct.”
In an internal memo sent to some of Blackrock’s staff Thursday, Wiseman said he was leaving because, in recent months, he had “engaged in a consensual relationship” with a colleague without reporting it as required.
“I regret my mistake and I accept responsibility for my actions,” he wrote, adding that he was committed to doing everything he could to ensure “an orderly transition.”
Larry Fink, Blackrock’s founder, chairman and chief executive, issued his own memo to all employees, in which he expressed disappointment in the lapse in the upper echelons of his firm where Wiseman was a senior managing director handling complex equity strategies, and chairman of the firm’s alternatives business.
“This is not who BlackRock is ... We expect every employee to uphold the highest standards of behaviour,” Fink wrote in the memo, which was also signed by Blackrock president Rob Kapito.
“This is especially critical for our senior leaders,” the memo said, adding that it was “deeply disappointing” for Blackrock to lose a second senior executive this year “because of their personal conduct.”
Jeff Smith, who had been at the firm for more than a decade, resigned as head of human resources in July after he breached an unspecified policy, according to a memo circulated by BlackRock at that time.
The 67- year- old Fink has not announced retirement plans, but his age has stoked the crafting of lists of candidates for heir apparent that have often included Wiseman’s name. He was one of three on a “short list of stars” identified in an article that appeared in Institutional Investor, an industry newsletter, in May.
Former associates of Wiseman from his days as a senior pension executive reacted to news of his departure from Blackrock with shock and disappointment. Speaking on condition they would not be named, one said the circumstances of his departure were very surprising, while another called the situation unfortunate.
None wanted to speculate on what Wiseman will do next, or how the nature of his departure from Blackrock could affect the plans of the 49- year- old who has always seemed to be on an upward trajectory.
A lawyer by training, Wiseman’s resumé was stacked with accomplishments including clerking for Beverley Mclachlin at the Supreme Court of Canada early in his career, and practising law at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and Paris.
He also received an MBA from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Laws from Yale, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
His pension management credentials were honed at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, where he was responsible for the private equity fund and co- investment programs.
In addition to his responsibilities at CPPIB, where he worked for seven years before becoming CEO in 2012, Wiseman served on the board of the institutional investor-backed Canadian Coalition for Good Governance, where his wife Marcia Moffat is the current chair.
Moffat, who once led Royal Bank of Canada’s retail banking division, is head of
Blackrock’s Canadian business, a job she took the year before Wiseman got his job with the New York- based firm in 2016. Wiseman said at the time that he planned to spend time in both Toronto and New York.
That same year, Wiseman was named to a 14- member advisory council of business leaders and experts assembled by Finance Minister Bill Morneau to advise the federal government on economic growth and strategy.
Wiseman and the chair of that advisory council, Dominic Barton, who was then global managing partner at Mckinsey & Co., had earlier joined forces to combat “short termism,” a trend of making decisions to meet investor demands for quarterly returns at the expense of focusing on building value for the long term.
Wiseman could not be reached for comment Thursday. An email sent to his Blackrock address generated an automated response directing inquiries about business matters to a managing director at Blackrock, and said personal emails would be passed on to Wiseman.
Teams that previously reported to Wiseman will now report to Kapito, Blackrock’s president, according to the company memo distributed Thursday.