BlackRock vs Unilever: Founders, CEOs and History

BlackRock

Founded

1988

Headquarters

New York, NY

Current CEO

Larry Fink

Employees

24,900

Unilever

Founded

1929

Headquarters

London, United Kingdom

Current CEO

Fernando Fernandez

Employees

96,092

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.

Unilever

• William Hesketh Lever

  William Hesketh Lever (later Lord Leverhulme) co-founded Lever Brothers with his brother James in 1885 and built it around Sunlight Soap, one of the first branded, individually wrapped soaps sold at mass scale.

• Samuel van den Bergh

  Samuel van den Bergh led Van den Bergh, a Dutch margarine maker that became one of Jurgens' main rivals. The two families combined their businesses into Margarine Unie in 1927, and Margarine Unie merged with Lever Brothers in 1929 to create Unilever.

• Anton Jurgens

  Anton Jurgens' family firm was among the first to manufacture margarine commercially in the Netherlands after the product was invented in France. Jurgens competed for decades with the Van den Bergh family before the two merged into Margarine Unie in 1927.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Unilever

1. Alan Jope2019–2023

   Chief Executive Officer

   Jope simplified Unilever's legal structure and organisation, which made later portfolio separations easier.

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2. Hein Schumacher2023–2025

   Chief Executive Officer

   Schumacher reset Unilever around fewer, bigger brands and set up the Ice Cream demerger before stepping down in February 2025.

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3. Fernando Fernandez2025–present

   Chief Executive Officer

   As CFO, the highly experienced Latin American executive enforces absolute financial discipline, attempting to restore investor confidence after years of sluggish stock performance.

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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

Unilever

• Dr. Squatch2025Undisclosed
• Wild2025Undisclosed
• Minimalist2025Undisclosed
• Paula's Choice2021Undisclosed
• Sir Kensington's2017Undisclosed
• Weis2017Undisclosed