BlackRock names new head of institutional investment for APAC

BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager with $10 trillion assets under management, named Hiroyuki Shimizu head of institutional investment for the Asia Pacific region on Feb. 22. Shimizu will also become president of BlackRock Japan, joining the firm in the second quarter of this year. 

Based in Hong Kong, he will be responsible for bringing solutions to institutional clients’ portfolios. He will partner with BlackRock's country leadership, investment and other business teams across the region to oversee product and client distribution for institutional investors. As the president of BlackRock Japan, Shimizu will support the chief executive, the representative director, and head of the Japan office Hiroyuki Arita to serve Japan client business. 

Shimizu was most recently global co-head of private credit and equity distribution, head of Japan and Korea, as well as president and representative director of Japan at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Prior to that, he was CEO of KKR Capital Markets Japan, leading its fundraising.

He spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs in Japan where he led distribution for the special situations group, credit and alternatives sales, and later derivatives sales for the financial institutions group.

Last August, BlackRock's affiliate BlackRock Real Assets made the unit’s first investment in Korea’s solar power sector by acquiring an unspecified stake in Korean solar energy development company Brite Energy Partners (BEP). 

The real asset unit also bought a 100% equity stake in Korea Renewable Energy Development & Operation Holdings Co. (KREDO Holdings), previously known as IGIS Private Equity, last July.  

Write to Chang Jae Yoo at yoocool@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.