BlackRock Names Former Morgan Stanley IM Exec Yoon Pyo Lee Head of Korea

BlackRock has named Yoon Pyo (YP) Lee as managing director and head of South Korea, with the former Morgan Stanley Investment Management executive tasked with developing and executing a long-term business strategy in the country for the world’s largest asset manager.

Seoul-based Lee, who has more than 25 years of experience in private and public market investment and business development, will begin his new role on 20 December.

With Lee having spent several years leading global private market investment including real estate, infrastructure, and private equity for Korea’s largest investor, the National Pension Service (NPS), the appointment comes as New York-based BlackRock has identified South Korea as a market where institutional investors are increasingly diversifying portfolios into alternatives, as well as active and index strategies.

“BlackRock’s diverse investment capability is well placed to serve an institutional investor base that’s becoming increasingly sophisticated in asset allocation,” Lee said in a release on Tuesday. “I am very pleased to be joining BlackRock and look forward to the prospect of contributing my local market expertise to the firm’s growth plans for South Korea.”

25-Year Veteran

Lee joins BlackRock from Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where he served as head of Korea and oversaw the company’s asset management business across public and private market strategies in the country since 2019.

From 2016 to 2019, Lee served as co-CEO of Seoul-based Truston Asset Management where he was responsible for building the fund manager’s private market practice and overseeing its fixed income business.

Lee also spent more than seven years at NPS as head of global private market investment and later taking on the role of head of investment strategy. The executive was a member of NPS’ investment committee as well as special committee for private market investment.

Lee has also worked at Macquarie Group, Ernst & Young and KPMG in investment and M&A transaction advisory capacities.

“We are delighted to welcome someone of Yoon Pyo’s calibre to lead our business growth in South Korea,” said BlackRock’s deputy head of Asia Pacific Hiroyuki Shimizu. “His deep investment expertise is particularly relevant at present, given clients and investors are looking for whole portfolio advice to diversify investment more globally. We will continue to focus on deepening conversations with investors in South Korea.”

Growing Demand for Alternatives

BlackRock is appointing its new Korea leader after the company in 2021 sold its retail mutual fund business in the country to local investment firm DGB Asset Management saying at the time that it aimed to focus on higher yielding institutional products, including alternatives.

Later that year, two unnamed Korean pension funds, through a vehicle led by the Korean unit of London-based infrastructure investment firm IPM Group, reportedly invested $104 million into BlackRock Real Assets’ Global Infrastructure Solutions IV co-investment fund, which targets investments in global infrastructure including water treatment, roads, renewable energy, data centres and logistics facilities in Europe and the US.

In 2022, the NPS invested KRW 1.1 trillion into BlackRock’s Real Estate Securities Fund. The world’s third-largest pension fund has been increasing investments in higher risk and overseas assets, including alternatives, with NPS announcing in May an asset allocation target of 15 percent to alternative investments by the end of 2029.

In July, BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure business increased its majority stake in Korean renewable energy firm Brite Energy Partners, with the KRW 100 billion funding marking BlackRock’s fourth investment in Brite since 2021.