New York-listed BlackRock has appointed Gary Shedlin as a senior managing director and chief financial officer, succeeding Ann Marie Petach, who is moving to BlackRock Solutions as a senior managing director within the client solutions business.

Shedlin joins from Morgan Stanley, where he is currently vice chairman of investment banking and a managing director in the financial institutions group. At BlackRock, he will serve as a member of the firm’s global executive committee, reporting to chairman and chief executive Laurence Fink.

As CFO, Shedlin will oversee corporate finance functions including business finance; accounting; finance operations; tax, treasury and risk management; and investment products and controls. He will also be responsible for investor relations and corporate development, as well as strategy, which has a co-report to Fink.

He starts on 11 March and will work closely with Petach through a transition period until she completes her tenure as CFO following the reporting of BlackRock’s first quarter earnings results. Shedlin will assume the role of CFO at that time.

Meanwhile, in her new role Petach will help develop client relationships and business initiatives, with a focus on solutions offerings for public and private pension funds.

BlackRock said Shedlin has advised the firm on “virtually all of its most significant strategic transactions”. The firm had $3.792 trillion in assets under management at end-December 2012.