(Bloomberg) -- Charles Hallac, who conceived BlackRock's investment management platform and founded its advisory business, has died. He was 50.
He died Wednesday at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Brian Beades, a spokesman for the company, said in a telephone interview. The cause was colon cancer, which was diagnosed about four years ago.
Hallac spent 27 years at the New York-based firm, the world’s largest money manager, rising to co-president in April 2014, a position he shared with Rob Kapito.
“Charlie was not only my partner for many years, but also a trusted and valued friend,” Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “He was a visionary who embodied our culture and was truly the heart and soul of BlackRock.”
During his time at BlackRock, Hallac founded the firm’s solutions business, which provides the Aladdin investment operating system and other advisory services to financial institutions. He was also chief operating officer, leading the integration of the global asset management business of Barclays after it was purchased by BlackRock. The company had $4.72 trillion in assets under management as of June 30.
MANILA UPBRINGING
Charles Shaul Hallac was born Oct. 20, 1964, in Manila, where he attended the International School Manila located in Taguig City, Philippines. He graduated from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and computer science.
He worked in the mortgage products group at First Boston before joining BlackRock in 1988.
Hallac was BlackRock’s first employee, joining the firm’s eight partners. He bought the firm’s first computer server, which he wedged between a refrigerator and a coffee machine in the firm’s one-room office, according to the statement.
He continued to build BlackRock’s technology infrastructure, including a team of 2,000 programmers, modelers and data analysts who support what became the Aladdin system. BlackRock today has more than 12,000 employees.
In 2009, Hallac was named chief operating officer.
Hallac is survived by his wife, Sarah, and children David, Rebecca, and AJ.
