BlackRock Private Equity Portfolio Manager Stephen Kelly to Exit

BlackRock Inc. private equity portfolio manager Stephen Kelly, a two-decade veteran of the world’s biggest asset manager, plans to leave by year-end.

Kelly, a managing director and head of the BlackRock Private Investments Fund, is departing to pursue other opportunities, the firm said in a memo to clients. He’s also a member of the senior leadership of the company’s Private Equity Partners business, which invests in other direct and secondary private equity stakes.

He was a founder and principal of Private Equity Partners in 1999 at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, which became part of BlackRock in 2006. The private ...