Muni bond supervisor Walter O’Connor to retire from BlackRock

Bloomberg Information

BlackRock municipal bond portfolio supervisor Walter O’Connor will retire from the agency in March. 

O’Connor’s tenure with BlackRock has spanned a long time and lots of adjustments within the muni business.

The agency introduced O’Connor’s retirement in a disclosure kind on Tuesday. He’ll depart his place on or round March 17.

In keeping with Pat Haskell, head of the municipal bond group at BlackRock, O’Connor acknowledged his intention to retire earlier this 12 months, and the 2 have labored collectively since to make sure a easy transition. 

“This exemplifies what Walter has all the time embodied: the agency, group and shoppers come first,” Haskell mentioned in an announcement. “His accomplishments and contributions have been vital and far of our group’s success will be attributed to his work.”

O’Connor is the co-head of BlackRock’s municipal funds group inside its municipal fastened revenue enterprise. O’Connor is certainly one of 5 portfolio managers for BlackRock’s iShares Excessive Yield Muni ETF. He has been on this place since 2006, based on the submitting. He’s additionally a member of the municipal administration committee, which oversees all municipal bond portfolios at BlackRock.

O’Connor is chargeable for 33 registered funding corporations, value a complete of $29.95 billion, based on the submitting. 

O’Connor has served in his place since 1991, when he was a portfolio supervisor for municipal bond retail mutual funds for Merrill Lynch Funding Managers. He has labored for BlackRock because it acquired the Merrill Lynch asset administration enterprise in 2006.

Earlier than 1991, O’Connor dealt with buying and selling, underwriting and arbitrage for municipal securities and monetary futures at Prudential Securities. 

BlackRock’s high-yield muni fund has $1.98 billion of belongings. BlackRock transformed the fund from a mutual fund to an ETF in February.