Francisco Blanch is head of Global Commodities, Equity Derivatives and Cross-Asset Quantitative Investment Strategies at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research, and was also head of Global Asset Allocation Research between 2010 and 2012. Based in New York, Blanch is also a member of the Research Investment and Operating Management Committees.

Blanch joined Merrill Lynch in London in April 2005. He developed the ICE Merrill Lynch Commodity index eXtra (MLCX) and 500+ related investable strategies in asset classes as diverse as commodities, equities, fixed income, and foreign exchange.

Research produced by the Commodities, Asset Allocation, and Global Derivatives teams has been recognized by Institutional Investor, Extel, Greenwich, Bloomberg, and Energy Risk, among others. Blanch appears regularly on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and CNN, and his research has been publicized in media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times and Washington Post.

Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Blanch was an energy economist focusing on global oil and gas in the Commodity Research group at Goldman Sachs & Co. and consulted for the European Commission.

He received a doctorate in economics from Complutense University of Madrid and a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was a Teaching Fellow in financial markets. He also completed graduate work in economics at the University of California at Berkeley and was a Korea Foundation fellow at Seoul National University.