Evercore Could Tap BlackRock Co-Founder as CEO

BlackRock's

(BLK) - Get Report

co-founder Ralph Schlosstein is expected to take over as CEO of

Evercore Partners

(EVR) - Get Report

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) - Get Report

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.