Jeff Shen, PhD, Managing Director, is Co-Chief Investment Officer and Co-Head of Systematic Equities within BlackRock’s Systematic investment team. He is a member of the BlackRock Global Operating Committee, BlackRock Systematic Management Committee and the BlackRock Asian Middle Eastern & Allies Network Executive Committee.

Dr. Shen's service with BlackRock dates back to 2004, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. At BGI, he was the Head of Investment for Asia Pacific and Emerging Market active equities. Prior to joining BGI, he began his career in 1997 with JP Morgan where he held numerous positions in global macro investment and asset allocation research in both New York and London.

Dr. Shen earned a BA degree in Economics from Hobart College, a MA degree in Economics from University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a PhD degree in Finance from New York University.

Dr. Shen is an adjunct professor at NYU teaching an MBA class on international investment. He also serves on the advisory board of the Clausen Center at UC Berkeley.

Gerardo Rodriguez, Managing Director, is the Chief Operating Officer of BlackRock Systematic and Global co-Head of Product Strategy for the Systematic Equities Team. He is a member of BlackRock’s Portfolio Management Group’s Executive Committee and the C20.

Mr. Rodriguez's service with the firm dates back to 2013. Prior to his current role he had portfolio management and research responsibilities within the systematic equities team’s Emerging Markets and China platform.

Before joining BlackRock, Mr. Rodriguez had a career of more than 14 years in the Mexican Ministry of Finance where he last served as Undersecretary of Finance and Public Credit. He has extensive experience in macroeconomic policy, financial market development and infrastructure financing. His responsibilities included public debt management, exchange rate and fiscal policy and regulation and the supervision of local financial institutions. During his tenure at the Ministry of Finance he was also the Head of Public Debt Management, where his main responsibilities included the development of the local government bond market, the design of the Treasury Direct platform (cetesdirecto.com) and the creation of the National Infrastructure Fund.

Mr. Rodriguez earned a BS degree in economics from Universidad de las Americas-Puebla (Mexico) and an MSc in Engineering-Economic Systems and Operations Research from Stanford University.

Rui Zhao, PhD, CFA, Managing Director and portfolio manager, is a member of BlackRock's Systematic Active Equity team and the lead portfolio manager for BlackRock's China A-share portfolios.

Dr. Zhao's service with the firm dates back to 2006. Previously she was a portfolio manager and research analyst for the New York based Quantitative Equity team, as well as a researcher on the Developed Markets team in the Systematic Active Equity group. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2006, Dr. Zhao has focused on research on empirical asset pricing and hedge fund performance, and published papers in both academic and practitioner journals, including Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Investment Management and Alpha Magazine. In 2003, she was a part-time associate at Citigroup, developing a market impact model for block trade. In 2000, she was an account manager with Joyo.com Limited, China's largest online bookstore (acquired by Amazon.com in 2004).

Dr. Zhao earned a BS degree, with honors, in statistics and a BA degree in economics, both from Peking University, and a PhD in finance from Columbia Business School.