Burger Heaven napkin
In the summer of 2007, Tom Fortin, head of the Aladdin Enterprise Risk Management Platform Development team, and Dan Schwieger, a key member of the Global Fund and Accounting Services team, met at Burger Heaven, a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, to discuss the re-architecting of the accounting system (known today as Alpha). The project plan was written on a napkin during their lunch meeting. When Tom presented the plan to Charlie Hallac, Co-President of BlackRock, Charlie was skeptical as to whether the redesign would be completed in the proposed short timeframe. In response to Charlie’s skepticism, Tom bet him a nickel that he could complete the project by November 2008. When Tom was able to successfully deliver the project on November 21, 2008, Rob Goldstein, then Head of BlackRock Solutions, bought a box of wooden tokens as a celebratory gesture for everyone involved in the project.