BlackRock announced that Daniel Rice, who stepped down earlier this week as co-manager of the $4.4 billion BlackRock Energy & Resources fund, will leave the company at the end of the year.

The Wall Street Journal broke the news yesterday, and Morningstar also took note.

Rice stepped down after a WSJ report revealed possible conflicts of interest between his family's investments and the portfolio he managed, which BlackRock had not disclosed. Alpha Natural Resources, one of the largest holdings in Rice's biggest fund, is part of a joint venture with his family firm, Rice Drilling. The fund's unrealized loss on Alpha Natural Resources is over $100 million, according to the WSJ.

Denis J. Walsh III and Dan Neumann, who co-PMed BlackRock energy funds with Rice, have taken over Rice's portfolios. Rice plans to hand off the funds he manages for private institutional accounts to his co-managers by December. 

Edited by: Chris Cumming


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