At BlackRock, a Wall Street rock star makes US$5 trillion comeback

Los Angeles

LAURENCE Fink, the leader and founder of BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, had come home.

A Bruin to the bone - Class of 1974 - he had a story to tell the 5,000 graduates packed into the cavernous basketball arena at the University of California, Los Angeles. Once upon a time he was a rock star on Wall Street. He had big hair and flashed turquoise jewellery, and making money had never seemed so easy.