The US asset management giant has appointed Jan Bratteberg to succeed Geir Espeskog at the helm of its iShares business in the Nordics.

BlackRock has named Jan Bratteberg as the new head of its exchange-traded funds provider, iShares, in the Nordics.

Bratteberg replaces Geir Espeskog, who has moved to Hong Kong as head of iShares distribution in Asia Pacific. Based in Copenhagen, he will report to Peter Beske Nielsen, BlackRock’s country manager for the Nordics and to Fergus Slinger, co-head of iShares sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

He takes on the new role of head of iShares Nordics from BlackRock’s Scientific Active Equity team, where he most recently was co-head of strategy. Over 15 years ago, he joined Barclays Global Investors, which merged with BlackRock in 2009.

Bratteberg will be responsible for driving iShares’ distribution efforts across the region, leading the sales team and strategy for the business. He will also contribute to the leadership and strategy of the wider BlackRock business.

“The growth potential for ETFs throughout Europe is significant, and the Nordic Region is an important region for iShares. Over the past five years, the Nordic iShares business has seen double-digit growth, in line with increased adoption of ETFs in the region,” said Nielsen.

“We now have more than $10 billion in assets under management and I expect this growth only to increase in the coming years as investors continue to develop their understanding of ETFs and deploy the funds in new and innovative ways,” he added.

The appointment follows BlackRock's recent launch of iShares MSCI EMU USD Hedged UCITS ETF, a European equities exchange-traded fund with a US dollar currency hedge. 

iShares has over 700 funds globally across multiple asset classes and strategies, with more than $1 trillion in assets under management as of the end of June.