BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) today announced the appointment of Sherry Rexroad, as Chief Investment Officer for the firm's newly launched global real estate securities platform.

With more than twenty years of experience in real estate securities, Ms. Rexroad will be responsible for building and ultimately leading a best-in-class investment team for BlackRock's Real Estate Securities group. Effective immediately, Ms. Rexroad will report to Mark Howard-Johnson, Global Head of BlackRock's Real Estate Securities group.

BlackRock Global Real Estate Securities platform draws upon BlackRock's extensive experience in the real estate investment business and its deep fundamental equity investment expertise. The newly formed platform will seek trends and investment opportunities in real estate securities with an intense fundamental approach.

"Sherry is a veteran of the real estate industry and has an outstanding investing track record in real estate securities," said Mr. Howard-Johnson. "I look forward to working closely with Sherry to assemble a superior team that will be critical to the foundation and future success of BlackRock's new Real Estate Securities offering."

Ms. Rexroad commented: "I joined BlackRock because I believe that its fundamental real estate business, coupled with it is equity investment capability, makes it exceptionally well-positioned to develop a successful real estate securities platform and take advantage of market opportunity. My first priorities will be to attract a strong bench of talent and to deliver a compelling product offering to our clients."

Prior to joining BlackRock, Ms. Rexroad amassed experience managing global, U.S. and long short hedge fund mandates. Most recently, she served as the Senior Portfolio Manager, REITs-Americas for Aviva Investors Global Listed Real Estate Securities Team. Previously, she was a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager with ING Clarion Real Estate Securities with $10 billion in assets under management. Prior to ING, she worked for AEW Capital Management, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the General Services Administration. She graduated from Haverford College and holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute, the CFA Society of Philadelphia and NAREIT.

About BlackRock

BlackRock is a leader in investment management, risk management and advisory services for institutional and retail clients worldwide. At March 31, 2012, BlackRock's AUM was $3.684 trillion. BlackRock offers products that span the risk spectrum to meet clients' needs, including active, enhanced and index strategies across markets and asset classes. Products are offered in a variety of structures including separate accounts, mutual funds, iShares® (exchange-traded funds), and other pooled investment vehicles. BlackRock also offers risk management, advisory and enterprise investment system services to a broad base of institutional investors through BlackRock Solutions®. Headquartered in New York City, as of March 31, 2012, the firm has approximately 9,900 employees in 27 countries and a major presence in key global markets, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East and Africa. For additional information, please visit the Company's website at www.blackrock.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release, and other statements that BlackRock may make, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, with respect to BlackRock's future financial or business performance, strategies or expectations. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words or phrases such as "trend," "potential," "opportunity," "pipeline," "believe," "comfortable," "expect," "anticipate," "current," "intention," "estimate," "position," "assume," "outlook," "continue," "remain," "maintain," "sustain," "seek," "achieve," and similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could," "may" or similar expressions.

BlackRock cautions that forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change over time. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and BlackRock assumes no duty to and does not undertake to update forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements and future results could differ materially from historical performance.

In addition to risk factors previously disclosed in BlackRock's Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") reports the following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements or historical performance: (1) the introduction, withdrawal, success and timing of business initiatives and strategies; (2) changes and volatility in political, economic or industry conditions, the interest rate environment, foreign exchange rates or financial and capital markets, which could result in changes in demand for products or services or in the value of assets under management; (3) the relative and absolute investment performance of BlackRock's investment products; (4) the impact of increased competition; (5) the impact of future acquisitions or divestitures; (6) the unfavorable resolution of legal proceedings; (7) the extent and timing of any share repurchases; (8) the impact, extent and timing of technological changes and the adequacy of intellectual property and information security protection; (9) the impact of legislative and regulatory actions and reforms, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and regulatory, supervisory or enforcement actions of government agencies relating to BlackRock, Barclays Bank PLC or The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.; (10) terrorist activities, international hostilities and natural disasters, which may adversely affect the general economy, domestic and local financial and capital markets, specific industries or BlackRock; (11) the ability to attract and retain highly talented professionals; (12) fluctuations in the carrying value of BlackRock's economic investments; (13) the impact of changes to tax legislation, including taxation on products or transactions which could affect the value proposition to clients and, generally, the tax position of the Company; (14) BlackRock's success in maintaining the distribution of its products; (15) the impact of BlackRock electing to provide support to its products from time to time; and (16) the impact of problems at other financial institutions or the failure or negative performance of products at other financial institutions.

BlackRock's Annual Report on Form 10-K and BlackRock's subsequent filings with the SEC, accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on BlackRock's website at www.blackrock.com, discuss these factors in more detail and identify additional factors that can affect forward-looking statements. The information contained on the Company's website is not a part of this press release.

Media Relations:
BlackRock, Inc.
Brian Beades, 212-810-5596
Brian.Beades@BlackRock.com
or
Farrell Denby, 212-810-8034
Farrell.Denby@BlackRock.com