For a decade and a half, Kirsty Craig at BlackRock has fulfilled a uniquely pivotal role within the world’s largest asset management firm — that of an internal interpreter, one capable of bridging two highly specialized yet distinct universes: the world of portfolio managers making billion-dollar strategic bets and the sphere of software engineers architecting the complex technological systems that underpin those financial decisions. Acting as a conduit between these two groups, she ensures that both the human intuition of investors and the analytical precision of engineers converge toward a common purpose — maximizing performance and driving sustained returns. This demanding combination of technical fluency, strategic intelligence, and interpersonal dexterity ultimately earned Craig her current distinction as Head of Research, Data, and AI Strategy for the firm’s portfolio management technology division, as well as her recent designation as a BlackRock Tech Fellow — one of the company’s highest honors, reserved for only about two dozen of its many thousands of technologists.
Craig was among five newly appointed Tech Fellows announced on December 16, individuals chosen for their extraordinary contributions in enhancing and accelerating the asset manager’s investment capabilities. Notably, she stands this year as both the only woman and the sole fellow whose work operates outside of Aladdin — the firm’s sophisticated, profit-generating platform that serves as the backbone of BlackRock’s investment technology. Her singular perspective positions her at a different yet equally crucial vantage point within the firm’s broader digital ecosystem.
Among Craig’s proudest professional accomplishments is her influence on Asimov, the advanced agentic artificial intelligence platform that supports BlackRock’s fundamental equity division. This pioneering system — described by Chief Operating Officer Rob Goldstein during the firm’s June investor day as a “virtual investment analyst” — exemplifies the company’s strategy of integrating AI into the heart of its operations. Asimov leverages artificial intelligence to streamline once time-intensive processes, automating workflows and conducting research that previously consumed analysts’ attention for months. In a marketplace where financial institutions are racing to harness AI to bolster efficiency and insight, Craig’s leadership has been integral to BlackRock’s continued ability to stay ahead of the technological curve.
Becoming a Tech Fellow has deepened Craig’s involvement in advancing that leadership frontier. Her new role provides a platform to embed even more directly into the firm’s strategic initiatives, ensuring technology remains a defining source of competitive advantage. That visibility, however, was not something she took for granted. Initially uncertain about her candidacy, she recognized that most previous fellows had built their reputations within Aladdin’s infrastructure — a domain distinct from her own. Her team, composed of roughly sixty software and data engineers as well as data scientists, operates horizontally across multiple investment strategies, fostering innovation through cross-functional research and technological experimentation.
Craig learned about her selection at the start of the month, when an unexpected calendar meeting hinted at significant news. After receiving confirmation, she immediately reached out to the individuals who had been instrumental in her nomination — her manager, her internal sponsor, her team, and her family. Laughing, she later recalled that while everyone congratulated her enthusiastically, most had little idea of what the prestigious fellowship truly signified.
Nish Ajitsaria, BlackRock’s co-head of Aladdin product engineering and co-executive sponsor of the Fellows program, offered further insight into Craig’s reputation within the company. According to him, her colleagues recognized her both for being a pioneer in deploying AI across investment functions and for her collaborative ethos that breaks down silos between technological and financial specialists. Ajitsaria described her as an “AI native,” emphasizing her instinctive understanding of how emerging technologies can transform portfolio management. He characterized Craig’s unit as operating “at the tip of the spear,” the experimental forefront where innovation first meets real-world investment application.
The geographical breadth of Craig’s career — spanning tenures in Edinburgh, San Francisco, and now Philadelphia — has shaped her approach to leadership. She attributes her success to cultivating horizontal influence: the ability to work fluidly across divisions, cultures, and time zones. As she explains, her responsibility lies in identifying what she calls the “dial movers” — those transformative points across data, AI, and technology that can meaningfully accelerate the firm’s investment research engine. Her position requires her not only to build tools but to shape strategies that allow the investment teams to harness data more intelligently.
A defining feature of Craig’s career has been her capacity to serve as an intermediary between contrasting professional mindsets. Investors and technologists, she observes, often operate with different assumptions, communication styles, and even vocabularies. Without translation, these differences can easily turn collaboration into misalignment. Craig’s success has stemmed from her ability to interpret the intentions of both sides, distill their perspectives, and synthesize them into actionable strategies that elevate both groups. In her words, investors and engineers “often talk past one another,” and her mission is to align these worlds so that innovation can flourish coherently and productively.
Equally important to Craig is her visibility as a woman in a senior technical leadership position. Among the twenty-four current Tech Fellows, she is one of only five women — an achievement she describes as a profound honor. According to BlackRock’s data from January 1, 2025, women comprise 43.8% of its global workforce and 33.1% of its senior leadership, numbers that underscore both progress and the continued need for representation at the highest levels of technical decision-making. Craig credits her involvement in BlackRock’s women’s and LGBTQ+ resource groups for strengthening her leadership approach, particularly in areas of communication, empathy, and cross-divisional collaboration. These communities, she explains, have taught her to frame complex technical and strategic topics in ways that are both accessible and inspiring to diverse audiences.
Reflecting on how these experiences shaped her professional development, Craig notes that the resource groups have not only expanded her internal network but have also honed her presentation and communication skills — refining her ability to convey messages with clarity and impact. Her aspiration now, bolstered by her new title, is to help junior technologists, especially women, “lean in” and pursue opportunities with confidence. Ajitsaria echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that the Fellows program reflects the full diversity of expertise and perspectives across all segments of the firm.
Looking ahead, Craig remains focused on advancing BlackRock’s technological strategy, particularly in expanding the use of AI to amplify active investing. Her team is exploring how agentic AI models, initially designed for equity research, can be extended into other domains such as fixed income and macroeconomic analysis. These initiatives aim to scale the firm’s capacity to transform masses of data into actionable investment insights, maximizing both speed and analytical rigor.
Beyond the professional milestone, Craig is preparing for a deeply personal transition as well. With her partner expecting to give birth in early January, the couple has kept celebrations modest for the moment — allowing them to enjoy the recognition quietly while focusing on the approaching arrival. She joked that apart from essential purchases like cribs and bottles, they have deferred most festivities until after the new year. As she looks forward to both a growing family and a growing technological mandate at BlackRock, Craig stands as a representative of the modern technologist — one who pairs deep technical mastery with human understanding, translating complexity into clarity and innovation into tangible results.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-tech-fellow-ai-investment-asimov-aladdin-2025-12
