BlackRock Hires Aviva’s Rexroad for New Real Estate Team

BlackRock Inc. (BLK), the world’s largest money manager, hired Sherry Rexroad from Aviva Investors to build and run a real estate investment team.

Rexroad was named chief investment officer of BlackRock’s new global real estate securities team, the New York-based company said today in a statement. She was most recently senior portfolio manager of real estate investment trusts for the Americas at Aviva. Rexroad reports to Mark Howard-Johnson, global head of BlackRock’s real estate securities group.

“My first priorities will be to attract a strong bench of talent and to deliver a compelling product offering to our clients,” Rexroad said in the statement.

Last year, BlackRock expanded its alternatives division, which manages hedge funds, real estate funds and private-equity strategies. The new real estate securities platform will look for trends and investment opportunities in real estate securities using an intense fundamental approach, BlackRock said in the statement.

The company manages $3.68 trillion in assets.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexis Leondis in New York at aleondis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net