Charles Prideaux is to step down from his role at BlackRock as EMEA head of active management and leave the company, IPE has learned.

Prideaux had been appointed to his current role earlier this year, having been head of EMEA institutional business since the firm’s merger with Barclays Global Investors in 2009.

Prior to that, he had been global COO for the fundamental equities business.

He also sat on the EMEA executive committee.

Prideaux joined BlackRock’s predecessor firm, Mercury Asset Management, in 1988, where worked on the UK equities team, and has worked for the firm continuously since then.

Mercury was acquired by Merrill Lynch in the 1990s, and the combined entity was acquired by BlackRock in 2006. 

Prideaux’s institutional business role was split following his move to head EMEA active management, with Justin Arter becoming UK institutional head and Peter Nielsen becoming head of Continental Europe.

He will not be directly replaced in his current role. 

A statement to staff today from Rob Kapito, president of BlackRock, and David Blumer, head of EMEA, said: “The work [Prideaux] has been doing this past year has helped provide the regional coordination our business requires.

“With Charles now moving on, Nigel Bolton, Pierre Sarrau and Tim Webb will continue to drive that coordination and regional investment oversight.”

BlackRock reported net inflows of $70bn (€66.9bn) in the third quarter of this year and $7.5bn of long-term active net inflows from institutional clients, mainly to multi-asset, but $3.4bn net equity outflows from quant and European strategies.