BlackRock, Inc. has appointed Steven Rust as head of global consultant relations for Asia ex-Japan, effective September 1 2014.

Rust will lead the development and management of consultant relations in the Asia ex-Japan region, expanding the partnerships with global investment consultants in the US, UK and continental Europe he has maintained for the last nine years. He will also help ensure the firm's investment capabilities are represented appropriately throughout the region's consultant community to the benefit of institutional and retail investors. Based in Hong Kong, Rust succeeds Patrick O'Donnell, who became Head of the Singapore-based institutional client business team earlier in the year.

Rust joined BlackRock's global consultant relations group nine years ago in New York, before moving to London in 2008. He has worked closely with investment consultants in the US, UK and continental Europe, many of which have a presence in the Asia ex-Japan region.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2005, Rust was an investment analyst in the US, responsible for compiling risk assessments of emerging market investments made by US majority-owned companies. He also assumed a research role in Spain, analyzing trade and developmental aid flows between the European Union, Middle East and North Africa.