Mr. Robert S. Kapito
Vice Chairman
BLACKROCK
Robert S. Kapito, Vice Chairman of BlackRock, oversees all portfolio management. Mr. Kapito is a member of the Management Committee, the Investment Strategy Group, and the Equity Investment Strategy Group. Mr. Kapito is responsible for overseeing portfolio management of the Fixed Income, Equity, Liquidity, and Alternative Investment Groups of BlackRock. In addition, Mr. Kapito plays a key role in coordinating the efforts of the analytical and administrative groups with the Portfolio Management Group. He is also involved in marketing and managing several of BlackRock's funds. Mr. Kapito serves as a President and a Director for BlackRock's family of closed-end mutual funds.
Prior to founding BlackRock in 1988, Mr. Kapito was a Vice President in the Mortgage Products Group at The First Boston Corporation. Mr. Kapito joined First Boston in 1979 in the Public Finance Department. Mr. Kapito left First Boston to complete his MBA degree and returned to the firm in 1983 in the Mortgage Products Group. While with this Group, Mr. Kapito initially traded mortgage securities and then became the head trader of collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs). Ultimately, Mr. Kapito became head of Mortgage Capital Markets with responsibility for marketing and pricing all of the mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities underwritten by First Boston. In 1982, Mr. Kapito worked as a strategic consultant with Bain & Co. and with two other private companies in Europe.
Mr. Kapito currently serves as Chairman of the Hope & Heroes Children's Cancer Fund and as President of the Board of Directors of Periwinkle National Theatre, a national non-profit arts-in-education organization with programs designed to be an effective tool to aid counselors and educators in their efforts to reach young people about difficult and socially relevant issues such as substance abuse prevention. Mr. Kapito earned a BS degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1979, and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School in 1983.
