Larry Fink co-founded BlackRock, the investment management company, in 1988. He became its chairman and chief executive and remains the public face most closely associated with the firm.
Before BlackRock, Fink worked at First Boston, where he helped pioneer mortgage-backed securities trading. A major trading loss in 1986 convinced him that investment firms needed stronger systems for measuring and controlling risk. That experience shaped BlackRock’s original business model.
BlackRock began under the corporate umbrella of Blackstone and initially focused on fixed-income and institutional asset management. It became an independent company after separating from Blackstone in 1994 and went public in 1999. Robert Kapito, Susan Wagner, Barbara Novick and other colleagues were also co-founders, so Fink was not the only founder—but he is the canonical answer to this question.
A common mix-up is Steve Schwarzman, who co-founded Blackstone and was involved in BlackRock’s early financing. Blackstone and BlackRock are separate companies; Fink led the latter.