(Bloomberg) — Weeks after three private equity dealmakers told BlackRock Inc. they were headed to a rival, the world’s largest asset manager fired off its own salvo.
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It dismissed Konnin Tam, Steve Lessar and Veena Isaac and announced the move internally in a memo to staff, citing the “coordinated fashion” in which they planned to depart.
That response underscores how intense the war for talent has become across the industry. BlackRock, best known as a provider of index and exchange-traded funds, has been seeking to expand in private equity, a sector that has been spared from the fee wars upending the rest of the asset-management world.
A lawyer for the three, who are leaving to join Apollo Global Management Inc., said they gave notice on March 24, indicating a desire to work cooperatively during the transition. They also told BlackRock that they would depart immediately or before the end of a 90-day notice period if that’s what the company preferred, according to two people who shared the contents of a resignation letter.
“The action we took reflects how seriously we take our commitment to putting the interests of our clients first and how the actions of these individuals fell short of what we expect of our employees,” Edwin Conway, global head of BlackRock Alternative Investors, and Russell Steenberg, global head of BlackRock Private Equity Partners, said in the memo announcing the dismissals.
The three fired executives, all managing…
