BlackRock has appointed Hiroyuki Shimizu as head of institutional for Asia-Pacific. Shimizu will also assume the role of president of BlackRock Japan, subject to local board approval. He will join the firm in the second quarter of 2022.

Based in Hong Kong, Shimizu will be responsible for bringing a full range of solutions to institutional clients’ portfolios. He will partner with country leadership, investment and other business teams to oversee product and client distribution across all institutional investors. As president of BlackRock Japan, Shimizu will support CEO, representative director and head of Japan Hiroyuki Arita to serve the firm’s Japan client business.

Shimizu was most recently global co-head of private credit and equity distribution, head of Japan and Korea, as well as president and representative director of Japan at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Prior to that, he was CEO of KKR Capital Markets Japan, leading its fundraising and financing efforts.

Shimizu spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs in Japan where he led distribution for its special situations group, credit and alternatives sales, and later derivatives sales for its financial institutions group.