BlackRock hired a Goldman Sachs MD to work on Aladdin engineering
Goldman Sachs' asset and wealth management division (GSAM) is one of its key areas of growth in 2026. Its Q2 earnings call this week revealed that the division's assets under supervision have swelled to $4tn, and it is becoming increasingly connected to Goldman's investment bank, which has referred 900 clients to GSAM since the start of 2025. The downside of this for Goldman is that it makes the bank's asset management staff increasingly attractive to rivals. In London, BlackRock just hired an ex-strat and technologist as a managing director (MD).
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Ashima Bhalla joined BlackRock as an MD and head of risk and oversight engineering for Aladdin, the firm's magnitudinous portfolio management system. She spent the last 16 years at Goldman, where she made MD in 2024; her most recent role was head of research, risk, and analytics technology within GSAM. She was previously a fixed income strat in the division, and held a role as ESG tech lead for five years.
As much as Goldman has been growing its asset management division, BlackRock is undoubtedly the bigger fish. The firm revealed in its own Q2 earnings today that its AUM has risen above $15tn for the first time.
Aladdin, Blackrock's flagship piece of technology, manages even more than that. The platform is licensed out to rivals and monitors over $20tn in assets, so working on the infrastructure can boost your personal stock massively. Lance Braunstein, former head of Aladdin engineering, left last year to become CTO of rising electronic trading firm Optiver.
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