BlackRock vs Samsung: Founders, CEOs and History

BlackRock

Founded

1988

Headquarters

New York, NY

Current CEO

Larry Fink

Employees

24,900

Samsung

Founded

1969

Headquarters

Suwon, South Korea

Current CEO

Jun Young-hyun and Roh Tae-moon

Employees

259,149

BlackRock

• Larry Fink

  Fink joined First Boston in 1976 and became one of its youngest managing directors, running a mortgage-bond desk that was highly profitable until a 1986 interest-rate move cost it about $100 million.

• Robert S. Kapito

  Kapito worked alongside Fink at First Boston and joined him in founding BlackRock in 1988.

• Susan Wagner

  Wagner ran many of the functions that let a small bond shop grow into a global firm, including strategy, corporate development and operations.

• Barbara Novick

  For roughly BlackRock's first two decades Novick ran its global client business, winning the institutional mandates that funded the firm's early growth.

• Ben Golub

  Golub led much of the quantitative work behind BlackRock's risk-first approach, building analytics for mortgage prepayment, interest-rate and credit risk that became central to Aladdin.

• Hugh Frater

  Frater was one of the mortgage specialists who helped launch BlackRock's fixed income business and held senior roles at the firm before leaving.

• Ralph Schlosstein

  Schlosstein brought corporate finance and public policy experience to the founding team; before Lehman he worked at the US Treasury and on the White House domestic policy staff during the Carter administration.

• Keith Anderson

  Anderson ran BlackRock's fixed income investing for two decades, the core of the firm until iShares arrived with the 2009 BGI deal, and sat on its executive committee. In 2008 he left to become Chief Investment Officer of Soros Fund Management.

Samsung

• Lee Byung-chul

  Lee Byung-chul founded Samsung Sanghoe in Daegu in 1938, trading dried fish, produce and noodles.

BlackRock

1. Larry Fink1988–present

   Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

   Fink co-founded BlackRock in 1988 and has run it for its entire history, taking it from a bond boutique to the world's largest asset manager.

   Source
2. Susan Wagner1988–2012

   Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer and Vice Chairman

   Co-founder who led strategy, corporate development and operations, including BlackRock's side of the MLIM merger and the BGI acquisition, before retiring from management in 2012 and joining the board.

   Source
3. Robert S. Kapito2007–present

   President

   Co-founder who long ran BlackRock's Portfolio Management Group across fixed income, equity, liquidity and alternatives before becoming President in 2007, overseeing day-to-day operations.

   Source
4. Rob Goldstein2014–present

   Chief Operating Officer

   Named COO in 2014 after running BlackRock's global institutional client business; oversees operations across the firm and sits on the management committee created in 2025.

   Source
5. Martin Small2023–present

   Chief Financial Officer

   CFO since 2023; leads financial planning and investor reporting and has laid out the 2030 targets for private markets, technology and digital asset revenue on earnings calls.

   Source
6. Adebayo Ogunlesi2024–present

   Chairman and CEO, Global Infrastructure Partners

   Founder of GIP who joined BlackRock's leadership when the deal closed in October 2024; leads its infrastructure business, including the Aligned Data Centers and AES transactions.

   Source

Samsung

1. Jong-Hee Han2022–2025

   Vice Chairman and CEO

   A longtime TV business leader who helped keep Samsung the top global TV brand. He died suddenly in March 2025 while in office.

   Source
2. Jay Y. Lee2022–present

   Executive Chairman

   Grandson of the founder and son of Lee Kun-hee. He was convicted in the 2017 bribery case and pardoned in 2022, and became Executive Chairman in October 2022. In 2025 the Supreme Court upheld his acquittal in the separate merger and accounting fraud case.

   Source
3. Jun Young-hyun2024–present

   Vice Chairman, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Head of Device Solutions

   He implemented a complete overhaul of the semiconductor division's engineering processes, issuing a rare public apology in 2024 for the company's technological delays.

   Source
4. Roh Tae-moon (TM Roh)2025–present

   Co-Chief Executive Officer, Head of Device eXperience

   As head of the MX (Mobile eXperience) division, he heavily integrated AI features (Galaxy AI) into the S-series flagship phones to combat Apple's dominance in the premium tier.

   Source

BlackRock

• Preqin2025$3.2B
• HPS Investment Partners2025$12B
• Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP)2024$12.5B
• Aperio Group2021$1.1B
• eFront2019$1.3B
• Barclays Global Investors (BGI) and iShares2009$13.5B

Samsung

• FlaktGroup2025$1.7B
• Xealth2025Undisclosed
• Harman International2017$8B
• SmartThings2014$200M