Brookfield Asset Management named Connor Teskey chief executive officer, marking the final step in Bruce Flatt’s long-held plans to replace himself at the helm of the $1 trillion asset manager.
The move frees up Flatt to focus on his plan to turn parent company Brookfield Corp. into an investment-led insurer, while Teskey will look to attract more client money to seize on the digital infrastructure boom.
Flatt will continue as chair of the board, in addition to his role as CEO of Brookfield Corp.
Teskey, 38, is now one of the youngest executives to run a firm of this size on Wall Street. He joined Brookfield in 2012 and quickly climbed the ranks, with Flatt appointing him as head of the renewables arm in 2020.
Teskey, while tending to his investments in renewables, pitched to his bosses the idea of buying a controlling stake in Oaktree Capital Management. That deal, completed in September 2019, helped propel Brookfield to become one of the largest alternative asset managers and paved the way for Brookfield to enter the insurance race. The firm recently agreed to take over the remaining shares of Oaktree in a $3 billion deal.
In 2022 Flatt expanded Teskey’s domain, making him president of Brookfield Asset Management as it prepared to spin off of the Brookfield Corp. parent company.
“Today’s announcement is the next step in the succession process we started four years ago,” Flatt said in a statement Wednesday. “This will set up our next generation of leaders who will guide the company in the coming decades.”
Flatt’s tenure as CEO of Brookfield Asset Management started in 2002, when the firm was known as Brascan. The business was renamed to Brookfield three years later, and Flatt oversaw its transformation into a sprawling asset manager that oversees more than $1 trillion of investments through its real estate, infrastructure, renewables, private equity, insurance and credit businesses.
