Corporate Rules Breach: Chief Candidate at Blackrock Falls Over Office Relationship

Once again, a high-ranking manager will lose his love life in the job. Location this time: the world's largest asset manager Blackrock, major shareholder of all local Dax companies.

At Blackrock, Mark Wiseman, head of Global Active Stock Management, has to go because he broke the in-house rules on workplace relationships, as the Financial Times reports. Wiseman was said to be the potential successor to Blackrock boss Larry Fink at the head of the company.

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"Our culture has always been our greatest strength at Blackrock," the FT quoted from an internal memo from the company, signed by Blackrock boss Fink and President Rob Kapito. It was deeply disappointing that two senior managers had to go for personal misconduct within a year. "Blackrock is not like that," says the memo. "It's not our culture."

"Amicable Relationship"

Earlier this year, Jeff Smith, head of personnel at Blackrock, had to leave the company. Smith had spent about ten years of his life at the investment house.

With assets under management of nearly $ 7 trillion, Blackrock is the largest asset manager in the world. Through its funds, the company is one of the largest shareholders of numerous large corporations in Germany, including all DAX companies. At the pharmaceutical companies Bayer , and Merck , the chemical company BASF and the Allianz Insurance Group In the end, the Americans were even the largest single shareholder.

The "FT" also quotes from an internal memo by Mark Wiseman. He is leaving Blackrock because he has had "a friendly relationship with a colleague" ("one of our colleagues") over the past few months, without informing the company about the company's statutes, said the outraged manager. "I regret my mistake and accept to take responsibility for it."

It was not until the beginning of November that the case of McDonald's boss Steve Easterbrook had made headlines. He also had to vacate his post because of a relationship within the company.