Robert S. Kapito

Robert Steven Kapito (born February 8, 1957) is an American businessman and investor. He's 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 the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and started in the Public Finance Department. He was fortuitous in meeting 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 strategic 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 $5.1 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.

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