Few fund management companies have managed to write such an excellent and successful course as BlackRock. Its history begins in 1988 when the current CEO Larry FinkRobert Capito and Susan Wagner, along with a small group of executives, left First Boston Corporation to start their own venture from scratch.

Thirty-five years later, the New York-based investment giant has more than $9 trillion in assets under management, 70 offices in 30 countries, and clients in at least 100 countries.

Although Fink does not plan to retire anytime soon, finding a successor is one of his top priorities. “This is priority #1,” he said in a recent interview. At 70, he is the only person to ever serve as the CEO of BlackRock.

He and Rob Capito, chairman of BlackRock, spent years coaching five key candidates in what the company calls “The Great Race.” Fink argues that succession planning has less to do with who replaces him than with who becomes the next group of leaders. Eventually, Fink and Capito founded BlackRock along with six other co-founders. As the current boss emphasizes, he prefers to build “camaraderie” rather than competition between the five, in the hope that they will continue to work together well after the appointment of a new CEO.

Applicants include Mark Widman, Global Chief Commercial Officer, COO Rob Goldstein and CFO Martin Small, Rachel Lord, Head of Asia Pacific, and Salim Ramji, Head of ETF.

Whoever replaces Fink will lead a company that most Americans know little about. But it’s taken for granted on Wall Street and in Washington that BlackRock is arguably the most powerful company in the country, thanks to its stake in thousands of companies around the world and its role in managing the retirement accounts of more than 35 million people.

The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1999 and acquired Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in 2006, significantly increasing its assets under management.

The position of BlackRock’s chief executive has become more widely known in recent years as the company has taken a bolder stance in voting on shareholder proposals relating to social and climate issues. Since 2018, she has signaled that her portfolio companies should focus on having two women on each board of directors, answering questions about gun safety and — perhaps most controversially — factoring in investment risk climate risk.

BlackRock said it is driven by making sound financial decisions for its clients and that the asset management industry is fragmented enough that size is not an issue. “What I got wrong,” Fink remarked, “is how quickly… we’re going to be the next respected and hated ‘IT’ company.”

Fink’s potential successors have said they will try to be more transparent about what the company is doing, hoping that transparency will partially dampen the recent backlash.

Fink, who experienced the devastating effects of the 1987 stock market crash, was determined to create a company that would help investors navigate the complex world of finance with greater confidence and security.

From the beginning, BlackRock has focused on providing fixed income investment services to institutional clients. However, he quickly expanded his offerings to include different asset classes and investment strategies. In 1999, the company went public and its shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

This milestone marked the beginning of a new era for the company as it embarked on a series of strategic acquisitions and partnerships that propelled it to the forefront of the global financial industry. In 2006, it acquired Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, significantly increasing its assets under management and expanding its global footprint.

This deal was followed by the purchase of Barclays Global Investors in 2009, which included the iShares ETF business. These strategic moves strengthened BlackRock’s position as a leading asset manager and diversified its product offerings and customer base.