Rick Rieder Obsesses About Risk (And A Few Other Things)

RICK RIEDER FREQUENTLY describes himself as “maniacal.” And he’s not alone. BlackRock Inc.’s chief executive officer, Larry Fink, agrees.

- Brian Chappatta

The global chief investment officer for fixed income at Black- Rock is unusually passionate for Wall Street. How else would you describe someone who won’t accept his doctor’s advice on minimum required sleep? Who seems to relish spending one Saturday each month from sunrise to sunset doing nothing but market research?

As obsessive as Rieder is about investing and a handful of other topics, perhaps what’s more striking is how rigid he is about cutting things out of his life that don’t fire him up. He’ll talk your ear off about why he was an early investor in Tesla Inc. and drives one of its cars (Elon Musk “is a god to me”), and he’ll go to just about any concert with his family (including rapper Pitbull’s show this past New Year’s Eve). But he can’t fathom spending a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or catching a midday movie. No time for those things.

That leaves him with a short list of interests: education reform; sports; his alma mater, Emory University; his family; and his bond funds. “What I enjoy doing, I really enjoy doing,” he says. “I’ve given up on the rest of things that I’m kind of interested in.”

RIEDER IS ZEALOUS ABOUT education reform. One cold morning in December, he’s revving up a group of students in the gym of Vailsburg Middle School, a charter school in Newark, N.J. Vailsburg is one of more than a dozen charters in Newark run by North Star Academy, of which Rieder is chairman of the board. Exhorting the young students to seize opportunities, he tells them, “Life is not a dress rehearsal! Life is the big event!”

Then he yields to two surprise guests: Ken Daneyko, a New Jersey Devils hockey legend, followed by the team mascot: the NJ Devil.