* Wiseman to take up BlackRock role in September
* Wiseman will lead BlackRock's stock-picking team
* Wiseman said prospect of succeeding Fink not factor
* CPPIB's global head Mark Machin to become CEO
* Machin says strategy to remain unchanged
(Adds comment from Wiseman, Machin)
By Matt Scuffham and Trevor Hunnicutt
TORONTO/NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) BLK.N ,
the world's largest asset manager, has recruited the head of
Canada's biggest public pension fund to become the top executive
overseeing its stock-picking operations.
Wiseman, 45, who has transformed the Canada Pension Plan
Investment Board (CPPIB) into one of the world's most active
dealmakers over the past four years, will step down next month
and become head of BlackRock's global active equity business in
September. Wiseman will be replaced by Mark Machin, the head of
CPPIB's international operations.
Wiseman will become a member of BlackRock's Global Executive
Committee, an exclusive club of fewer than two-dozen senior
deputies to BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink and President
Rob Kapito.
He will be one of a much smaller subset of those people with
oversight over investing teams, taking over a group within the
executive committee focused on investments, according to a
statement.
He will also oversee some 350 portfolio managers and other
staff responsible for $275 billion in investments. New
York-based BlackRock managed $4.7 trillion on March 31.
Fink has been working with Wiseman on a group called
Focusing Capital on the Long Term, which has advocated that
institutions invest more of their money with companies whose
executives show a dedication to long-term success, rather than
appeasing markets every quarter.
Wiseman joins the company during an unsettled period for
active money managers. Markets and a trend toward low-cost
passive investing have conspired to make the business of
managing and selling actively managed stock funds a zero-sum
game. BlackRock's relative investment performance slipped last
quarter, according to its own metrics.
In a bid to boost its performance, BlackRock has scoured the
industry for top managers and invested in technology, as well as
what it calls a "scientific" active equity business that mines
reams of data for insight on which stocks to pick.
During a reshuffling announced in January, Fink and Kapito
combined the previously separate scientific and "fundamental"
teams under four managers after the departures of their two
prior leaders.
A sign of how much of a priority the unit is for the
company, the unit's leaders since then - Chris Jones, Nigel
Bolton, Raffaele Savi and Jeff Shen - reported directly to
Kapito. Bolton, Savi and Shen will become co-chief investment
officers of the unit, while Jones is leaving BlackRock, a
spokesman said.
While BlackRock benefits from the low-cost trend through its
index funds and a booming iShares exchange-traded funds
franchise, those strategies can be less profitable.
Wiseman will also become chairman of BlackRock Alternative
Investors, a smaller, but highly-lucrative group of BlackRock
investments, including its hedge funds and infrastructure
business.
Under Wiseman's leadership, CPPIB has increased its exposure
to those kinds of assets to counter volatile markets and
low-yielding government bonds.
BlackRock's alternatives business will still be run
day-to-day by Mark McCombe, another senior managing director,
and his colleague Matt Botein, but BlackRock said in a statement
that Wiseman will help develop new investment strategies and
clients.
Wiseman will join a list of potential long-term successors
to Fink, 63, but said that had not been a factor in his decision
to leave CPPIB. He added that his decision to leave CPPIB had
been "incredibly difficult".
CPPIB STRATEGY UNCHANGED
Wiseman has raised the global profile of CPPIB, turning it
into one of the first ports of call for investment bankers
selling assets. He has overseen a broad range of investments
abroad, including the $12 billion acquisition of GE Capital's
private equity lending portfolio. He is also a passionate
advocate of long-term investment strategies.
Machin, Wiseman's replacement, joined CPPIB in 2012 after
spending two decades at Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) GS.N , spear-heading
their operations in Asia before departing the investment bank.
Machin said his appointment will not result in any change in
strategy for the institution.
"I was one of the senior team who developed the strategy.
It's something I believe in, there will be no change at all," he
said.
Machin's appointment comes at a time when the percentage of
the CPP Fund invested outside of Canada has risen to
approximately 81 percent, with geographic diversification being
a key factor behind its growth.
Machin will continue to head CPPIB's Asia and International
businesses until a successor is identified, the fund said.
"There is no doubt that overseas investing is crucial for a
plan like CPP, with a lot of exposure to the Canadian economy,
and Mark's deep experience in this area, no doubt, played a
role," said Donald Raymond, CPPIB's former chief investment
strategist, who worked with Machin before joining alternative
investment company Alignvest.
(With additional reporting by Anet Josline Pinto in Bengaluru;
Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)