Samara Cohen: BlackRock's Newly Named Chief Investment Officer of EII

You are the newly named Chief Investment Officer of BlackRock’s ETF and Index Investments (EII) business. Can you walk us through your new role and expanded responsibilities? 

In my new role, I lead the teams that run the world’s most transparent and accessible investment platform. We estimate that over 100 million people around the world access our index and ETF capabilities, which let them participate in economic growth and improve their financial well-being. 

The teams that make up the EII Markets and Investment platform manage portfolios across more than 85 markets and 65 countries and aim to deliver market quality and uphold investment integrity. We sit in Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, New York, Atlanta and San Francisco, bringing global markets and a wide range of investment strategies to our clients. 

In addition to managing our ETF and Index portfolios, our teams design the investment processes for new products and the architecture of our investment platform. We lead the industry in setting market standards and identifying ways to improve index construction and outcomes. At BlackRock, there is absolutely nothing passive about index investing! We ensure the ecosystem of liquidity; trade execution and post-trade service providers is robust and diverse so that we can grow and thrive across multiple market environments. 

Indexation continues to modernize world markets and create new on-ramps for investors by providing affordable, diversified and transparent investment strategies. As CIO, my overarching goal is to challenge and empower the team women and men who manage our portfolios, identify ways to continuously improve our products/platform and develop the ETF and Index markets ecosystem. 

You are a BlackRock “Boomerang” — meaning you began your professional career as an Analyst at BlackRock, left to pursue another career opportunity and rejoined the firm again in 2015 as a Managing Director. Tell us a bit about your career journey and what led you back to BlackRock. 

If you had asked me in high school which professional industry I’d be in, I never would have guessed financial services. I tell this to people all the time because I think if you have a passion for markets and investing, there is no “right” background or set of educational experiences. We have many investors on our team who would say the same. 

I enjoyed math and science in high school, but my great passion was theater. I wasn’t an actor – I loved the backstage environment, stage management, directing and design. I went to college to major in theater but quickly found that I missed a more quantitative curriculum and tried an economics class, which I loved. I ended up graduating with dual degrees in Theater Arts (a B.A.) and Financial Engineering (a B.S. in Economics). 

I interviewed at BlackRock back in 1993. Having spent all my summers working in regional theaters, I really didn’t know what asset management was.

However, I met three female partners at BlackRock, which was more than I met at any of the other investment banks I was also considering. Wanting to be close to them and follow in their footsteps inspired me to choose BlackRock. 

I decided to go to business school after four years at BlackRock, and in between my first and second year, I interned on the trading floor at Goldman Sachs (GS). I absolutely loved the trading floor environment, which involved the levels of complex orchestration experienced in my theater production days, and I was thrilled to accept a full-time offer from GS upon graduation. I stayed there for 16 years! 

What led me back to BlackRock? As my career progressed, I learned that I did my very best work when I had a clear sense of purpose behind my efforts. The financial crisis gave our industry an opportunity to assess how we might make markets safer and more efficient, and I wanted to be part of that. The more I learned about ETFs and Index Investing (and I had to Google “what is an ETF” in 2014), the greater conviction I had that ETFs would bring more transparency to markets around the world. I was incredibly excited to have an opportunity to be a part of that story – to join the team that would call themselves “champions of investor progress.” 

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Carefully consider the Funds’ investment objectives, risk factors, and charges and expenses before investing. This and other information can be found in the Funds’ prospectuses or, if available, the summary prospectuses which may be obtained by visiting www.iShares.com or www.blackrock.com. Read the prospectus carefully before investing. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. 

This information should not be relied upon as research, investment advice, or a recommendation regarding any products, strategies, or any security in particular. This material is strictly for illustrative, educational, or informational purposes and is subject to change. 

Prepared by BlackRock Investments, LLC, member FINRA. 

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