Mark B. Florian, Managing Director, Head of BlackRock Global Infrastructure Funds ("BGIF"), started the BGIF franchise in 2008. Since inception, Mr. Florian has overseen all of the Fund's activities, including overall strategy, portfolio construction, investment origination, structuring, execution, monitoring, and exit strategy. He is the Chairman of the Investment Committee for BGIF.
The BGIF team manages approximately $9 billion in capital commitments across three vintages. The BGIF team has created over 40 portfolio companies across the globe for the Funds and includes over 60 investment professionals who are located in Greenwich (Connecticut), London, Singapore, Houston and Mexico City. The BGIF team joined BlackRock in 2017 from First Reserve, a private equity firm that supported the creation of the BGIF franchise starting in 2008, when Mr. Florian joined the firm. The BGIF team raised the first two fund vintages while at First Reserve.
Prior to BGIF, Mr. Florian was a Partner at Goldman Sachs, fulfilling two primary roles at the firm: 1) managing its global Infrastructure Investment Banking business, and 2) serving on the Investment Committee for Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners. His 23-year Goldman Sachs career spanned a wide range of areas within the firm, including the government finance, corporate finance investment banking, and the mergers & acquisitions group. While at Goldman Sachs, he led over $25 billion of mergers and acquisition transactions, and also had structured over $35 billion in financing and hedging transactions. He has been asked to testify to the U.S. Congress on infrastructure issues multiple times and was appointed to a Federal Government commission, which developed recommendations to the U.S. Congress on key changes to its infrastructure finance system.
Mr. Florian holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Economics, magna cum laude, from Duke University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.