BlackRock's Kristi Mitchem to join State Street: Sources

Kristi Mitchem has been tapped to head the defined-contribution business at State Street Global Advisors, according to people familiar with the decision. Last week, InvestmentNews' sister publication Pensions & Investments reported that Ms. Mitchem was leaving BlackRock Inc., where she a managing director and head of the company's U.S. defined-contribution business. Marie McGehee, a State Street spokeswoman, declined to comment. But Bobbie Collins, a spokeswoman for BlackRock, says Ms. Mitchem's duties at the company have been absorbed by Frank Porcelli, head of the firm's U.S. retail arm, and Robert Capaldii, head of the U.S. institutional business. Ms. Collins declined to comment on whether the firm intended to replace Ms. Mitchem. Ms. Mitchem joined Barclays Global Investors Inc. in 2006 as managing director and head of the firm's U.S. defined-contribution business. When BlackRock bought BGI last year, she was chosen to lead the combined unit, which represented $213.3 in billion in assets as of Dec. 31, 2008, the latest data available. Before that, Ms. Mitchem spent nine years at The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., where she held a variety of roles, including leading the West Coast derivatives group and the U.S. transition services. SSgA had been searching for an executive to lead its defined-contribution business for several months, according to the sources, who declined to be identified. Ms. Mitchem could not be reached for comment.