Evercore Could Tap BlackRock Co-Founder as CEO

BlackRock's(BLK Quote) co-founder Ralph Schlosstein is expected to take over as CEO of Evercore Partners(EVR Quote) from Roger Altman, who will remain as executive chairman but give up daily management of the firm, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

The planned changes, which have yet to be approved by Evercore's board, are designed to expand the firm's asset-management unit and other areas outside its core advisory practice, the Journal notes. The firm has made a number of investments in that area, including the recent acquisition of a Bank of America (BAC Quote) unit that manages employee benefit plans.

Schlosstein co-founded BlackRock back in 1988. Altman and Schlosstein have been close for most of their careers and both worked at Lehman Brothers and served in the administration of President Jimmy Carter, the Journal reports.

Altman, who began his career at Lehman in the 1970s, created Evercore, one of Wall Street's more successful boutique investment banks, in 1996, the newspaper reports.

Evercore ranked 10th among Wall Street firms by the total dollar volume of the transactions it advised on in the first quarter, the Journal reports, citing data from Thomson Reuters.