Robert Steven Kapito (born February 8, 1957) is an American businessman and investor. He is a co-founder (with

Larry Fink Laurence Douglas Fink (born November 2, 1952) is an American billionaire businessman. He is a co-founder, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation. BlackRock is the largest money-management firm ...

and

Susan Wagner Susan Lynne Wagner (born 1961) is an American financial executive. Wagner is one of the co-founders of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation, where she was vice chairman and chief operating officer. BlackRock is ...

) and president of the New York City-based investment management firm

BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager ...

Early life and education

Kapito was born in

Monticello, New York Monticello ( ) is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village located in Thompson, New York, Thompson, Sullivan County, within the Catskills region of New York, United States. It is the seat for the town of Thompson, and the county ...

, into a working-class Jewish family. His father, aunt and two brothers ran a tire and car repair business in Monticello for 50 years, and according to Kapito, "I don't think I ever saw them is parentswith clean hands". When Kapito was 13, his father had a serious stroke, but continued working in the office. His father died in 1986, and his mother in 1997. Kapito graduated from Monticello High School in 1975. He attended the

State University of New York at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public research university in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. The university was founded in 1846 a ...

for two years, before transferring to the

Wharton School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1979. He earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

(HBS) in 1983.

Career

Kapito joined

First Boston : ''For the company after its acquisition by Credit Suisse, see Credit Suisse First Boston (known as CSFB and CS First Boston)'' The First Boston Corporation was a New York–based bulge bracket investment bank, founded in 1932 and acquired by ...

in 1979 after graduating from Penn and started in the Public Finance Department. He was hired by

to work at First Boston, where they were instrumental in pioneering the

mortgage-backed security A mortgage-backed security (MBS) is a type of asset-backed security (an "Financial instrument, instrument") which is secured by a mortgage loan, mortgage or collection of mortgages. The mortgages are aggregated and sold to a group of individuals ( ...

market in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Kapito left First Boston to complete his MBA degree and returned to the firm in 1983 in the Mortgage Products Group. In 1988, Kapito left First Boston along with Fink and founded

under the umbrella of the

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

firm

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman ...

as partners. Kapito worked closely with Fink at BlackRock, where he developed a reputation as an aggressive and loyal supporter of Fink. In 2012, he received the Gustave L. Levy Award from the United Jewish Appeal Federation of New York for his donations. In

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, he warned about product shortages and said that "a very entitled generation that has never had to sacrifice" was experiencing inflation for the first time. The comment received backlash from news opinion pieces, which pointed out his large salary and net worth. Kapito was one of 200 global financial executives who attended the 2022

Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit The Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit is an annual financial summit based in Hong Kong, organised by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The inaugural event took place in November 2022. The organisers goal was to discuss challenges and op ...

in Hong Kong. Two members of the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

said the executives should reconsider their attendance, stating "Their presence only serves to legitimise the swift dismantling of Hong Kong's autonomy, free press and the rule of law by Hong Kong authorities acting along with the Chinese Communist Party." Kapito serves as a member of the board of trustees of the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

and as a member of the

Harvard Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

Executive Education Faculty. He is also president of the board of directors for the Hope & Heroes Children's Cancer Fund, and president of the board of directors for Periwinkle Theatre for Youth, a national non-profit arts-in-education organization.

Personal life

Kapito met his wife Ellen R. Hershey when she was a student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and they married in 1980. Ellen R. Hershey is the daughter of Bernard and Roslyn Hershey of North Valley Stream, New York. Ellen Kapito is a member of the board of overseers at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing. They have four children. Kapito's hobbies are golfing, skiing, and driving restored vintage cars.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kapito, Robert S. American financial company founders American financiers American investors 20th-century American Jews American money managers BlackRock people Harvard Business School alumni Jewish American bankers American bankers Living people University of Pennsylvania alumni 1957 births 21st-century American Jews People from Monticello, New York Monticello High School (New York) alumni