BlackRock has hired Rachel Lord as head of iShares in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm with $4.096 trillion of assets, has appointed Rachel Lord as head of iShares in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Lord replaces Joe Linhares, who, after three years leading the business in Europe, will return to the US to assume a new role as global head of BlackRock’s platinum client programme. Linhares will be based in New York and reports to Rob Fairbairn, head of BlackRock's global retail and iShares businesses.

Lord joins BlackRock from Citigroup, where she was global head of corporate equity derivatives.  She brings with her more than 20 years of experience in a range of sell-side roles and deep experience managing teams in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia. 

Prior to joining Citi in 2009, Lord spent 13 years at Morgan Stanley in a variety of senior roles, most recently as head of corporate equity derivatives, EMEA & APAC.  Based in London, she will report to Mark Wiedman, global head of iShares.  Lord will join iShares’ global and EMEA executive committees, as well as BlackRock’s global operating committee.

In other recent hires at the firm, earlier in the month BlackRock appointed Leo Seewald as the new country head for Taiwan. Seewald replaces LinYun Chang who is now an advisor for BlackRock based in Taiwan.