Akiva Dickstein, Managing Director, is Head of Customized Core Portfolios within BlackRock's Americas Fixed Income Alpha Strategies and a member of the Americas Fixed Income Executive Team. Mr. Dickstein has been the lead portfolio manager on BlackRock's mortgage portfolios since joining BlackRock in 2009. Prior to that, Mr. Dickstein spent eight years at Merrill Lynch, where he served as Managing Director and head of the U.S. Rates & Structured Credit Research Group. He was responsible for the team that produced MBS, ABS, CMBS, Treasuries, swaps, and interest rate derivatives research. Mr. Dickstein's publications on MBS strategy included the weekly Mortgage Investor as well as numerous lengthier articles on topics such as optimal loan modifications, the valuation of credit-sensitive MBS and ABS, and the pricing of mortgage derivatives, options, and pass-throughs. In addition, he developed Merrill's prepayment models for fixed rate and hybrid MBS. From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Dickstein was with Lehman Brothers, most recently as a Senior Vice President in Mortgage Derivatives Trading. In this role, he traded mortgage derivatives and developed Lehman's credit default model. He joined Lehman as a mortgage and asset-backed securities analyst and was named to Institutional Investor's All American Fixed Income Research Team in pass-throughs, non-agency mortgages, and asset-backed securities. Mr. Dickstein earned a BA degree in economics, summa cum laude, from Yale University in 1990, and an MA degree in physics from Princeton University in 1993.

Scott MacLellan, CFA, Director, is a portfolio manager on the Short Duration team within the BlackRock Multi-Sector Fixed Income Portfolio Management Group. Prior to assuming his current responsibilities in 2008, Mr. MacLellan was a member of the Global Client Group, focused on Japanese clients. He also served as a product specialist for short duration and LIBOR-benchmarked fixed income products. Previously, Mr. MacLellan spent four years with Nomura BlackRock Asset Management (NBAM), a former joint venture between BlackRock and Nomura Asset Management Co., Ltd, in Tokyo as an account manager. Prior to joining NBAM in 2001, Mr. MacLellan spent a year in the Global Finance and Investment Department of IBJ Leasing in Tokyo. Mr. MacLellan earned a BS degree, with honors, in economics and international development studies from King's College in 1997.

Managing Director of BlackRock, Inc. since 2014; Director of BlackRock, Inc. from 2010 to 2013