15 May 2024 BlackRock, the World’s Largest Asset Manager, Faces Charges of Discrimination

Washington, D.C. – At today’s annual BlackRock shareholder meeting, Scott Shepard, Director of the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project (FEP), presented a proposal holding the asset management behemoth accountable for its suppression of alternate viewpoints.

Proposal 5 called into question why BlackRock doesn’t include “viewpoint” and “ideology” in its equal employment opportunity (EEO) policy and requested a report on the potential risks of the company not explicitly prohibiting discrimination on those grounds.

“There is ample evidence that individuals with conservative viewpoints may face discrimination at BlackRock,” FEP wrote in its supporting statement. “CEO Larry Fink and BlackRock’s executive suite make no secret not only of their own leftwing commitments, but of their intent to use their power to make other American corporations bow to their personal policy preferences. If Fink is willing to enforce his politics on all of corporate America, he is surely willing to do it to his own employees. They deserve to be protected against Fink’s bullying, just as shareholders and investors deserve a company at which all viewpoints are respected, as this will keep BlackRock from making potentially costly mistakes because of an unwonted narrowness of perspective.”

Scott Shepard

In his statement today, Shepard asked BlackRock’s CEO, directors and executives to consider whether viewpoint discrimination is a problem for BlackRock that hurts company value, and why, for more than a year, they refused to engage in discussions regarding this proposal.

“Of course, BlackRock discriminates by viewpoint,” said Shepard. “BlackRock, particularly through CEO Larry Fink, is significantly (and perhaps primarily) responsible for yanking over from the fever dens of academe the all-consuming viewpoint discrimination that’s killing higher ed.”

Shepard also warned BlackRock executives about the legal ramifications they may soon face for their actions.

“BlackRock is spending vast sums of money it holds as custodians for investors and shareholders to hire lobbyists to shut down investigations and other efforts by elected representatives aimed at establishing whether BlackRock’s directors and executives are doing, or violating, their fiduciary duty,” Shepard said. “Using others’ money to evade these reviews is therefore pure, clear, straight pecuniary self-dealing.”

Shepard closed by noting that “self-dealing damages, of course, are collected from breachers’ personal fortunes. Our billionaire execs might manage the lobbyist tab – but it’s unlikely to be the last bill. As part of BlackRock’s totally non-woke, totally non-partisan – yet somehow exactly aligned with the Biden Administration’s whole-of-government initiatives – behavior forcing, did it force the catastrophic EV shift on automakers? Man: the recoverable damages there might even catch a billionaire’s attention.”

More information about this proposal, as well as other key votes, can be found in FEP’s mobile and web app, ProxyNavigator.