BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is focusing on goals other than “ESG”

Keen readers of Blackrock CEO Larry Fink’s annual letters will be familiar with how he’s been arguing that purpose begets profit, and such purpose is defined by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations. But ESG, the acronym that appeared four times in his 2021 letter to CEOs of the companies part of BlackRock’s $9.1 trillion portfolio, no longer works for Fink.

Fink, the high-profile CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, is concerned that the term ESG has become politically charged, as he said in a conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Sunday (June 25). For one, it has become a lightning rod for a certain kind of political discourse and even got the investing giant blacklisted in red states like Texas and Florida. On the other hand, it leaves the company exposed to accusation of just paying lip service to those principles. Read More