One of the pack of "three Marks and two Robs" have may have pulled ahead in the race to succeed Larry Fink ... though it's still not clear when that race will end. Meanwhile, Fink has also chosen familiar new index investing and advisor-channel chiefs.

Mark Kenneth Wiedman BlackRock Head of Corporate Strategy, International Operations, and Marketing

Fink, CEO of BlackRock [profile], is promoting index investing chief Mark Wiedman to a newly created role that oversees corporate strategy, international operations, and marketing, the Financial Times reports, citing a memo Fink sent to BlackRock employees today. The FT describes Wiedman's promotion as positioning him "as a likely heir-apparent" to run BlackRock, ahead of the rest of the "three Marks and two Robs", which also includes: chief operating officer Rob Goldstein; president Rob Kapito; Americas chief Mark McCombe; and active equities chief Mark Wiseman.

A BlackRock spokeswoman did not immediately return MFWire's call for comment.

Meanwhile, Fink also promoted Salim Ramji, head of the U.S. wealth advisory business, to succeed Wiedman as head of the index investing business, putting him back on the executive committee. Ramji will be succeeded atop U.S. wealth advisory by Martin Small, head of U.S. iShares. BlackRock chief marketing officer Frank Cooper (and BlackRock's Asia-Pacific and Europe chiefs) will report both to Fink and to Wiedman. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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