Aflac Adds BlackRock’s Stevens as Head of Global Trading

Aflac Inc. (AFL), the world’s biggest seller of supplemental health insurance, hired Timothy “Chip” Stevens for the newly created post of global head of trading as the insurer increases its Wall Street presence.

Stevens joins from BlackRock (BLK) Inc.’s investment management unit, where he was head of fixed-income trading for the Americas, the Columbus, Georgia-based insurer said today in a statement. Stevens, 42, will report to Chief Investment Officer Eric Kirsch and be responsible for building Aflac’s trading systems and infrastructure, the firm said.

Kirsch is expanding Aflac’s investment-management unit beyond Georgia and Tokyo after joining the insurer from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. last year. Kirsch this week hired Bradley E. Dyslin, who once worked with him at Deutsche Bank AG, to be global head of credit at Aflac’s recently opened investments office in New York. Stevens, who was based in San Francisco for BlackRock, will join the Wall Street office on June 12.

“Chip has extensive global experience with sell-side and buy-side institutions,” Kirsch said in the statement. “He has also been both the architect and manager of large, complex trading platforms.”

Before joining BlackRock, the world’s biggest money manager, Stevens was head of U.S. fixed-income trading for Barclays Global Investors and was a trader at Deutsche Bank, according to the statement. At Aflac, Stevens will lead the firm’s global trading operations, including fixed-income, currency and other assets, the company said.

Stevens has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a MBA from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zachary Tracer in New York at ztracer1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at dkraut2@bloomberg.net