Robert S. Kapito

Kapito serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Joseph H. Lookstein Ramaz School, is the recipient of 2009 Joseph Wharton Leadership Award and the 2010 Semper Fidelis Award from the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. In 2012, he received the Gustave L. Levy Award from the United Jewish Appeal Federation of New York for his donations.

Prior to assuming his current responsibilities in 2007, Kapito served as Head of BlackRock's Portfolio Management Group. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing all portfolio management within BlackRock, including the Fixed Income, Equity, Liquidity, and Alternative Investment Groups.

In 1988, Kapito left First Boston along with Laurence D. Fink and founded BlackRock under the umbrella of the private equity firm Blackstone Group where they joined as partners. In 1992, BlackRock was spun out from Blackstone and became an independent company.

Born into a Jewish family, Kapito earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts (HBS) in 1983 after completing a BS degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Kapito met his wife Ellen when she was a student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Kapito left First Boston to complete his MBA degree and returned to the firm in 1983 in the Mortgage Products Group. In 1982, Kapito worked as a strategy consultant with Bain & Co. and with two private companies in Europe.

Kapito joined First Boston in 1979 after graduating from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and started in the Public Finance Department. He met his future business partner, Laurence D. Fink, at First Boston where they were instrumental in pioneering the mortgage-backed security market in the United States.

Robert Steven Kapito (born February 8, 1957) is an American businessman and investor. He is a founder and President of the New York City-based investment management firm, BlackRock.