BlackRock
| 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 managed about $11.5 trillion in assets as of 2025, making it the world's largest asset manager.[2] The firm was founded in 1988 and became a publicly-traded company in 1999.[3]
Mission
| Environmental, social, and corporate governance |
|---|
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| • What is ESG? • Enacted ESG legislation • Arguments for and against ESG • Opposition to ESG • Federal ESG rules • ESG legislation tracker • Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's weekly ESG newsletter |
As of 2025, 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. A connected and inclusive culture 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]
Leadership
As of May 2025, the following individuals served on the BlackRock board of directors:[7]
- Laurence D. Fink, chair and chief executive officer of BlackRock
- Pamela Daley, former senior vice president of corporate business development, General Electric Company
- Gregory J. Fleming, president and chief executive officer of Rockefeller Capital Management
- William E. Ford, chairman and chief executive officer of General Atlantic
- Fabrizio Freda, former president and chief executive officer of the Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
- Murry S. Gerber, lead independent director; former chairman and chief executive officer of EQT Corporation
- Margaret L. Johnson, chief executive officer of Agility Robotics
- Robert S. Kapito, president of BlackRock
- Cheryl D. Mills, founder and chief executive officer of BlackIvy Group
- Kathleen Murphy, former president of personal investing at Fidelity Investments
- Amin H. Nasser, president and chief executive officer of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco)
- Gordon M. Nixon, former president and chief executive officer of Royal Bank of Canada
- Adebayo Ogunlesi, chairman and chief executive officer of Global Infrastructure Partners
- Kristin Peck, chief executive officer of Zoetis, Inc.
- Charles H. Robbins, chairman and chief executive officer of Cisco Systems, Inc.
- Hans E. Vestberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Verizon Communications, Inc.
- Susan L. Wagner, former vice chair of BlackRock
- Mark Wilson, former chief executive officer of Aviva plc and former president and chief executive officer of AIA
Noteworthy events
BlackRock leaves NZAM (2025)
BlackRock announced January 9, 2025, that it was leaving the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAM).[8]
BlackRock had over $11 trillion in assets under management at the time of the departure, nearly 20% of the $57.5 trillion NZAM’s signatories managed as of October 2024. The firm said in a letter following the announcement that legal pressure from U.S. public officials influenced the decision. The departure followed a House Judiciary Committee report in December 2024 alleging financial firms’ participation in global climate groups was anti-competitive. It also came less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump’s (R) second-term inauguration.
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.[9]
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.[10]
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
- ↑ BlackRock, "About us," accessed February 1, 2021
- ↑ Financial News", "BlackRock assets hit new high despite ‘uncertainty and anxiety’ over markets," accessed May 20, 2025
- ↑ BlackRock, "History," accessed February 1, 2021
- ↑ BlackRock, "Corporate sustainability," accessed May 20, 2025
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 BlackRock, "Principles," accessed May 20, 2025
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ BlackRock, "Board of Directors," accessed May 20, 2025
- ↑ Bloomberg, "BlackRock Leaves Major Climate Group Amid Wall Street Exodus," accessed January 15, 2025
- ↑ 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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