Antonio (Tony) DeSpirito, Managing Director, is Global Chief Investment Officer of Fundamental Equities. He is also lead portfolio manager of the BlackRock Equity Dividend and value portfolios.

Mr. DeSpirito joined BlackRock in 2014. He was previously a Managing Principal, portfolio manager, and member of the Executive Committee at Pzena Investment Management, where he was responsible for a suite of long-only value products and two hedge fund portfolios. Mr. DeSpirito has managed value equity assets since 1996, serving as a portfolio manager for the John Hancock Classic Value, PACE Large Company Value, and Vanguard Windsor funds.

Mr. DeSpirito is a visiting lecturer at the Johnson School at Cornell University. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Adirondack North Country Association.

Mr. DeSpirito earned a BS degree in economics with a concentration in finance, summa cum laude, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a JD degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

David Zhao, Managing Director, is Co-Director of Research for the US Income & Value team within the Fundamental Active Equity business of BlackRock's Active Equities Group. Mr. Zhao is a Portfolio Manager for the BlackRock Equity Dividend portfolios.

He also has partial research coverage for the information technology and telecoms sectors. Prior to joining BlackRock, David was a Global Equity Senior Research Analyst and Principal at Pzena Investment Management covering technology, US banks/brokers, medical technology, non-life insurance, financial technology and select industrials. David began his career as an Analyst at Lehman Brothers covering technology M&A; and later within the Institutional Equities Corporate Strategy Group.

David holds a BA of Arts with degrees in Economics and Computer Information Systems and graduated Cum Laude from Northwestern University.