BlackRock hires JPMorgan’s Jessica Bulen for family office push

BlackRock tapped JPMorgan Chase executive Jessica Bulen to lead its growing family office business.

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Bulen will become BlackRock’s head of family capital, endowments, foundations and healthcare in the Americas institutional business starting in July, according to a memo to employees Monday. During more than two decades at JPMorgan, Bulen advised ultrahigh net worth families and institutions across public and private markets.

The hire is part of a BlackRock’s plan to strengthen its business with family offices that typically have $500 million or more in assets and increasingly operate as institutional-level investors, said Armando Senra, head of BlackRock’s Americas institutional business. These clients are looking for more private markets investments, increasingly complex tax strategies and risk analytics across full portfolios of assets.

“Within the institutional framework, endowments, foundations, family offices is the fastest growing segment in the industry,” Senra said in an interview. “We want it to be the fastest growing segment for us, too.”

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Long a dominant manager of stocks and bonds, index funds and ETFs, BlackRock has spent big over the past three years to catch with the growing demand for alternative assets. According to the firm’s website, BlackRock’s Americas Institutional Business managed $16 billion in family capital at the end of 2022.

Since then, BlackRock acquired HPS Investment Partners and Global Infrastructure Partners as well as some specialized tax and customized index investment businesses, and is increasingly promoting hedge funds as a way to beat markets and juice returns. The firm declined to say what the unit manages now, saying that some family office assets are included in its $1 trillion wealth management business.

“You needed additional Lego pieces to be able to really put in front of these client segments a value proposition that is attractive,” Senra said. “Now we have the scale.”

Family offices have long invested in private equity strategies and hedge funds, and BlackRock has found that they are increasingly diversifying holdings into private credit and infrastructure.

Alternative investments comprised 42% of family office portfolios and were expected to increase, BlackRock said in a survey released last year.