UBS's head of investment bank strategy has jumped to BlackRock

BlackRock has poached a managing director at UBS’s investment bank to lead strategy for its exchange traded funds (ETFs) business.

Sohee Park, who was global head of strategy for UBS’s investment bank for five years based out of London, has just moved to New York to join the world’s largest asset manager. Park is now global head of strategy for iShares ETF and index investments, according to her public profile.

ETFs and passive investment strategies have been surging in popularity at the expense of active investment strategies. Passive investment strategies grew 4.5 times faster than active in 2016, to $6.7trillion, according to Morning Star data. In the first half of this year, BlackRock has attracted inflows of $158.9bn into its iShares ETF arm – already exceeding 2016’s total of $137.9bn.

Park’s move is another sideways step in a varied career that has centred around strategy within large financial institutions. At UBS she was involved in some of the initiatives that have reshaped its investment bank, which involved exiting some fixed income trading businesses and focusing more on its advisory functions.

Before joining UBS, she worked at McKinsey & Co for 10 years in Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK. Her last role in London involved covering corporate and investment banks in Europe. Previously, she was a bank analyst at Goldman Sachs investment research in Asia.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com