Susan L. Wagner, ’84

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Cofounder, Director, and Retired Vice Chairman, BlackRock Inc.

Susan L. Wagner is a cofounder and director of BlackRock, where she served as vice chairman and a member of the Global Executive and Operating Committees before retiring in 2012. Over the course of her nearly 25 years at the firm, Ms. Wagner served as chief operating officer, head of strategy, corporate development, investor relations, marketing and communications, alternative investments and international client businesses. She also served as global executive sponsor of, and as a director continues to support, BlackRock’s Women’s Initiative Network.

Throughout her tenure at BlackRock, Ms. Wagner led strategy development and coordinated the firm's strategic initiatives, including BlackRock's mergers with PNC, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, and Barclays Global Investors; its initial public offering; the acquisitions of HPB Management, SSRM Holdings Inc., and the fund of funds business of Quellos; and joint ventures in Japan, China and India.

Prior to founding BlackRock, Ms. Wagner was a vice president in the Mortgage Finance Group at Lehman Brothers, supporting the investment banking and capital markets activities of mortgage and savings institutions, including development of innovative products cited as "Deal of the Month" (Nov. 1986) and "Deal of the Year" (Jan. 1987) by Investment Dealers' Digest.  Ms. Wagner previously assisted in writing and editing Conversations with Economists, which was named one of the ten best business and economics books published in 1984 by both Business Week and Forbes.

Ms. Wagner was named among Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business," included on similar lists published by the Financial Times and Crain’s New York, and honored by the National Council for Research on Women.  She graduated with honors from Wellesley College with a BA in English and economics, and earned an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago. Ms. Wagner serves on the boards of Apple, BlackRock, DSP BlackRock (India), Swiss Re, Wellesley College, and the Hackley School.