CHSS Distinguished Alumni - Economics

Eileen Kiely

MA Economics '96

Eileen Kiely, managing director, leads BlackRock’s counterparty, trading, and securities lending risk function. She oversees a comprehensive global risk framework that spans bilateral and cleared markets, ensuring robust oversight of trading activity. As a fiduciary, she manages risk on behalf of BlackRock’s investing clients. She is also responsible for safeguarding the firm’s own exposure, particularly in its capacity as an agent lender.   
 
Kiely is a recognized authority on central counterparty (CCP) risk. She has authored several thought leadership pieces and frequently engages with global regulators, advocating for resilient trading markets 
 
Before joining BlackRock, Kiely was a director at RBC Capital Markets, underwriting credit risk to CCPs, broker-dealers, and fintech firms. She began her finance career at Goldman Sachs, where she spent more than a decade covering a wide range of financial and industrial sectors as both a risk manager and ratings advisor. 
 
Earlier in her career, Kiely was an economic research analyst at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and a paralegal in both the United States and the Czech Republic. 
 
She holds a BA in international relations from American University, an MA in economics from George Mason University, and an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.