Susan Lynne Wagner (born 1961) is an American financial executive. Wagner is one of the co-founders of

BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with trill ...

, an American multinational investment management corporation, and served there in the capacities of vice chairman and chief operating officer. BlackRock is the largest asset management firm in the world with $8.67 trillion in assets under management as of May 2021. In 2011, she was named to two lists of powerful women: "Most Powerful Women in New York 2011" and "50 Most Powerful Women in Business (2011)".

Early life and education

Wagner was born in 1961 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to a Jewish family. She graduated in 1982 with honors from Wellesley College with a BA in English and economics, and then earned an MBA in finance from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

in 1984.

Career

After earning her MBA, Wagner joined

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, a ...

' investment banking unit in New York City. During her years at Lehman she worked on mergers and acquisitions, fixed income products, and strategic acquisitions. In 1988, Wagner and Ralph Schlosstein left Lehman to join Blackstone Financial Group. Later, Blackstone Financial Group changed their name to

. As one of the founders of BlackRock, Wagner served as vice chairman and chief operating officer. She orchestrated BlackRock's mergers and acquisitions, which included Quellos, Merrill Lynch Investment Management, and Barclays Global Investors. Prior to retiring from BlackRock in 2012, Wagner expanded the company into

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Since retiring from BlackRock, she serves on the BlackRock board of directors as well as serving as an officer and member of the board of trustees of the

Hackley School Hackley School is a private college preparatory school located in Tarrytown, New York, and is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. Founded in 1899 by a wealthy philanthropist, Frances Hackley, Hackley was intended to be a Unitarian al ...

. In May 2014, Wagner was asked by Wellesley's class of 2014 to deliver the commencement address. In July 2014, Wagner was named to the board of

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

, replacing long-time board member William Campbell. Wagner was the second woman on the Apple eight-member board and the only director with a background in finance. In 2014, she also was elected to the board of directors of

Swiss Re Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd,
Swiss Re. Retrieved on 18 January 2011. "Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd ("Swiss Re") ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Susan Wellesley College alumni University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni American women business executives American business executives Jewish American bankers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1961 births Directors of Apple Inc. 21st-century American women