A fit vision of leadership
Sports enthusiast Mark McCombe shows his BlackRock staff how work-life balance can be an asset as the money managers run hard in Asia
Veteran banker and fund manager Mark McCombe, chairman of BlackRock in the Asia-Pacific, is not interested only in his staff making money. He also wants them to lead a healthy and active life not tied to their desks.
"BlackRock is a very healthy company and we promote personal wellness and work-life balance around the world. We encourage our staff to eat well and to do a lot of sport to keep fit," he said.
McCombe practises what he preaches. "I cycle a lot these days in Tung Chung and Shek O to keep myself fit and healthy," he said. His next ambition on the fitness front is to spend five days cycling 850 kilometres from Edinburgh to London to raise funds for charity. "I hope I can finish it," he said with a laugh.
Since McCombe left his former job as chief executive of HSBC's Hong Kong office in 2011 to join New York-headquartered BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, he has been busy building up his team by hiring star fund managers. It now manages a total of US$143 billion of assets in Asia. During the past two years, he has expanded his team from 1,600 in 2011 to about 2,000 staff, with half of them in India, 280 in Hong Kong and the rest in Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and Japan.
"It is important to establish a team of talent who can establish the trust of our clients," McCombe said in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post in his Central office.