The BlackRock veteran Mark Wiedman is planning his exit from the firm, shaking up the race to succeed CEO Larry Fink.

BlackRock is making key leadership changes and combining some teams internally, according to a memo to employees from CEO Larry Fink and President Rob Kapito. The changes follow several major private market-linked acquisitions at BlackRock in the past year: Global Infrastructure Partners,

Over more than two decades at BlackRock, Wiedman was known for leading the integration of Barclays Global Investors and the iShares exchange-traded fund business after BlackRock a

BlackRock said in its fourth-quarter earnings report Wednesday that assets under management jumped to a record $11.55 trillion, up from $10 trillion a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected BlackRock to report a record $11.

Key Takeaways BlackRock's assets under management surged 15% year-over-year to $11.55 trillion.The asset manager beat estimates for earnings and revenue in the period.CEO Larry Fink noted that this was the second straight quarter of record inflows for BlackRock.

BlackRock reported fourth-quarter earnings per share of $10.63. The world’s largest asset manager reported net income of $1.67 billion, up 21% from a year earlier. BlackRock’s stock rose 3% in premarket trading on Wednesday.