BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has appointed Dipeeka Walvatkar Pendurkar as Vice President – HR, Employee Relations (APAC). The appointment places an experienced HR leader at the helm of employee relations across one of the firm’s most strategically significant regions, as BlackRock deepens its footprint in Asia-Pacific amid a period of sustained global expansion.
In her new role, Dipeeka will lead complex workplace investigations covering conduct, discrimination, harassment and policy compliance – ensuring outcomes are fair, legally sound and consistent with BlackRock’s global standards. She will advise senior business leaders and HR teams on disciplinary matters, redundancies and sensitive employee issues, while also shaping ER strategy through periods of organisational restructuring, M&A activity and market entry. Working in close partnership with Legal, Compliance and HR stakeholders, she will focus on risk mitigation, governance strengthening and operational excellence across the region.
Dipeeka brings over 13 years of progressive HR leadership experience, with a career built across some of the world’s most prominent organisations. She joins from ByteDance, where she spent more than six years as HR Operations Leader and POSH Internal Committee Chairperson. In that capacity, she led India HR operations and supported APAC HR services teams, overseeing employee relations investigations, compliance programmes, benefits administration and large-scale HR transformation initiatives. She also drove process automation and governance improvements across a complex, multi-geography environment.
Prior to ByteDance, she held multiple HR services leadership roles at Amazon – contributing to employee lifecycle management, HR strategy execution, engagement programmes and data-driven decision-making. Earlier in her career, she supported employee relations and audit processes at BNY Mellon in an HR Operations capacity, and began her professional journey as an HR intern at Cipla. She holds an MBA in Human Resources from Sinhgad Institute of Management and a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the University of Pune – an academic profile that reflects both analytical rigour and a grounding in people-centric disciplines.
BlackRock operates in more than 40 countries and, as of Q4 2025, manages a record $14 trillion in assets under management. The firm has been on an aggressive strategic expansion, completing the acquisitions of Global Infrastructure Partners in 2024 and HPS Investment Partners and data provider Preqin in 2025 – moves that have propelled it into the top tier of global alternatives providers. APAC sits at the centre of this growth ambition: with capital markets in Asia expanding at a pace outstripping the United States, significant wealth entering capital markets through Japan’s NISA accounts and robust IPO activity in Hong Kong, the region represents both opportunity and organisational complexity in equal measure.
It is within this context that Dipeeka’s appointment carries particular weight. As BlackRock navigates integration, restructuring and expansion across APAC, the demand for rigorous, culturally attuned employee relations leadership is sharper than ever. Her background – spanning investigations, compliance, cross-border HR transformation and stakeholder management across some of the world’s largest and most closely scrutinised workplaces – positions her well to build the governance frameworks a firm of BlackRock’s scale requires in this region.
The appointment reflects a broader recognition within global financial services that HR and employee relations leadership is not a support function but a strategic priority – particularly as organisations manage workforce complexity at the intersection of rapid growth, regulatory scrutiny and cultural diversity.
