BlackRock
From Ballotpedia
| BlackRock | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | Offices worldwide |
| Type: | Corporation |
| Top official: | Larry Fink |
| Year founded: | 1988 |
| Employees: | 16,000 |
| Website: | Official website |
BlackRock is a global investment manager and fiduciary. According to its website, BlackRock aims to help people build savings, make investing easier, and promote sustainability and inclusivity.[1]
BlackRock integrated environment, social, and corporate governance (ESG) strategies into 100% of its investment approaches, which covered $2.7 trillion in assets in September 2020.[2] The firm was founded in 1988 and became a publicly-traded company in 1999.[3]
Mission
| Environmental, social, and corporate governance |
|---|
|
| • What is ESG? • Enacted ESG legislation • Arguments for and against ESG • Opposition to ESG • Federal ESG rules • Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's weekly ESG newsletter |
As of 2021, Blackrock had the following mission statement and principles:
Mission statement
| “ | We help more and more people experience financial well-being.[4][5][6] | ” |
Principles
- We are a fiduciary to our clients: "The fiduciary mindset is the bedrock of our identity. It reflects our integrity and the unbiased advice we give our clients."[5]
- We are one BlackRock: "A diverse workforce is indispensable to our creativity and success. It’s how we answer the biggest questions and solve the toughest problems. An inclusive, equitable environment makes us thrive. It enables us to draw on expertise and unique experiences from across the firm and bring out the best in each other. Aladdin unifies us, creating a common language for us to interpret the world, the markets, and our clients’ needs.[5]
- We are passionate about performance: "We are relentless about finding better ways to serve our clients and improve our firm. Since our founding, innovation has been at the center of how we deliver performance and stay ahead of our clients’ needs."[5]
- We take emotional ownership: "The people we serve entrust us to help them prepare for the future. Our culture is defined by the deep sense of responsibility we feel to our clients and to each other. In everything we do – from the investment performance we deliver to the technology we develop – we are emotionally invested in our clients’ futures. We are equally invested in the success of our firm and our colleagues. We hold ourselves and each other to the highest standards of excellence."[5]
- We are committed to a better future: "We are long-term thinkers, focused on helping people build a better tomorrow. We are deeply invested in the success of all of our stakeholders – our clients, our employees, our shareholders, and the communities where we operate – and we run our business sustainably and responsibly. At the companies we invest in for our clients, we advocate for sustainable and responsible business practices that drive long-term value. We always strive to serve more people, and to find new and innovative ways to help them achieve financial well-being."[5]
In 2020, BlackRock told its clients about a commitment "to making sustainability a key component of the way BlackRock manages risk, constructs portfolios, designs products, and engages with companies."[2]
Work
BlackRock highlighted the following four aspects of its work in its 2020 Purpose Report:[1][4]
Financial security: According to BlackRock, the firm helps "millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives." BlackRock said that 1.52 billion retirement savers all around the world invest in BlackRock products.[1][4]
Investment access: According to BlackRock, the company aims to "make investing easier and more affordable."[1]
Sustainable outcomes: According to BlackRock, the company aims to "advance sustainable investing because our conviction is it delivers better outcomes for investors.[1][4] BlackRock said that it had invested $152 billion in active and indexed sustainable strategies, $21 billion in green bonds, and made 1260 engagements with companies on environmental issues, and helped power over 21 million homes with investments in renewable energy.[4]
According to its 2020 Purpose Report, BlackRock is "one of the top providers of sustainable investment options" and gives investors a choice of "131 environment, social, and governance (ESG) funds to help meet goals from screening out specific sectors to proactively supporting positive change."[4]
Inclusive economies: According to BlackRock, the company aims to "contribute to a more resilient economy that benefits more people."[1] BlackRock said that it uses its "voice as shareholders to urge companies to focus on important issues like climate change, the fair treatment of workers, and equality." The company said it had voted against management over 1500 times for insufficient diversity, committed $10 million to supporting racial justice organizations, and "traded $260 billion of securities with diverse U.S. brokers in 2020."[4]
Leadership
As of February 2021, the following individuals served on the BlackRock board of directors:[7]
- Laurence D. Fink, Chair and chief executive officer
- Bader M. Alsaad, Former managing director of the Kuwait investment authority
- Mathis Cabiallavetta, Former vice chair of the Board Swiss Re
- Pamela Daley, Former senior vice president of corporate business development General Electric Company
- Jessica Einhorn, Former dean of Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University
- William E. Ford, Chief executive officer of General Atlantic
- Fabrizio Freda, President and chief executive officer of The Esteé Lauder Companies
- Murry S. Gerber, Lead independent director of EQT Corporation
- Margaret L. Johnson, Chief executive officer of Magic Leap, Inc.
- Robert S. Kapito, President of BlackRock, Inc.
- Cheryl Mills, Chief executive officer of Blackivy Group
- Gordon M. Nixon, Former president and chief executive officer of RBC
- Charles H. Robbins, Chair and chief executive officer of CISCO Systems
- Marco Antonio Slim Domit, Chair of the board of directors of Grupo Financiero Inbursa
- Susan L Wagner, Former vice chair of BlackRock
- Mark Wilson, Former chief executive officer of Aviva PLC
Noteworthy events
States move to block BlackRock from buying utility companies (2023)
Several Republican state Attorneys General filed a motion with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on May 10, 2023, to prevent BlackRock from using its financial position and prominence to impose ESG policies (like net carbon emission goals) on utility companies.[8]
BlackRock agrees to keep ESG out of Florida investments (2023)
In January 2023, BlackRock announced an agreement to keep ESG practices out of its management of Florida state funds.[9]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms BlackRock. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 BlackRock, "About us," accessed February 1, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 BlackRock, "Our 2020 sustainability actions," accessed February 4, 2021
- ↑ BlackRock, "History," accessed February 1, 2021
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 BlackRock, "Purpose Report 2020," accessed February 1, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 BlackRock, "Principles," accessed February 4, 2021
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ BlackRock, "Board of Directors," accessed February 1, 2021
- ↑ The Hill, "Republican states move to block giant asset manager’s ESG push for utility companies," May 10, 2023
- ↑ BlackRock Caves To DeSantis Over ESG, January 19, 2023]
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