Frank Porcelli Managing Director, BlackRock

With BlackRock's acquisition of Barclays Global Investors closing next month, Frank Porcelli's influence is set to grow further. When he arrived at BlackRock from Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in 2006, Frank Porcelli started building a retail distribution model which increased BlackRock's mutual fund market share across major wirehouses from average of one percent in 2007 to an average of four percent in 2008. Gross sales of the New York firm's open-end mutual funds last year totaled $35.5 billion, up 46 percent from $24.3 billion in 2007. In terms of net flows, BlackRock jumped 13 spots to No. 7 in 2008, according to Strategic Insight.

Porcelli joined MLIM as chief operating officer in 2005, a year before BlackRock purchased the business from Merrill Lynch. Earlier, Porcelli worked at Putnam Investments as managing director of institutional sales and consultant relations. Before that, he served as director of corporate asset management services at Goldman Sachs and spent nine years at Smith Barney in roles such as head of retirement services, head of unit investment trusts and chief operating officer of Smith Barney Mutual Funds, which later went to Legg Mason as part of its asset swap with Citigroup.  

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