BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is reportedly "ashamed" he’s part of the debate surrounding the environment, social and governance (ESG) investment criteria that has made him a target of conservatives – but a leading opponent feels the high-powered executive is the "poster children for ESG."
Consumers' Research executive director Will Hild feels ESG is essentially "the entire financial services industry using their market power to push a far-left, progressive agenda," which he says BlackRock has done for years.
"Larry Fink and BlackRock really are the poster children for ESG. BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world, managing over $9 trillion, and Larry has been very vocal about the ways in which he uses that market power… to push his political agenda," Hild told Fox News Digital.
Fink admitted during a conversation with Axios at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Sunday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' decision to pull $2 billion in assets from Blackrock in 2022 hurt his firm. He also insisted the term ESG has been "misused by the far left and far right," but Hild doesn’t think the BlackRock honcho is being truthful about the term.
"What he really is afraid to admit is that ESG is at its heart a corruption of the free-market system and an attack on companies pursuing what should be their main focus, which is serving the consumer," Hild said.
Hild said Consumers' Research is committed to "educating consumers on issues important to them and amplifying their voice and marketplace," which is why BlackRock has become a target.
"As we saw this phenomenon of woke capitalism taking over corporate America, changing their focus from serving consumers and to preaching politics at them, we decided we need to take action," Hild said. "In October of 2021, we launched an ongoing multimillion dollar ad campaign aimed at BlackRock and its far-left allies in the market for pushing a political agenda. American Investment."
Indeed, Consumers' Research put a spotlight on Fink’s company with its "About BlackRock" campaign that has called the top executive the "architect of woke capitalism" that focuses on ties to China, along with ESG.
The campaign’s website says of BlackRock and Fink, "the company uses its clout to push a radical agenda in coordination with other financiers through a network of international organizations. This Consumer Warning highlights the commitments BlackRock has made with their investors’ money—commitments that adversely impact the U.S. economy and likely violate their fiduciary duty to seek the best return, putting your retirement at risk in the name of progressive politics."
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Other critics, including GOP lawmakers, have been pushing back on ESG investing criteria and argued companies are violating their fiduciary responsibilities to their shareholders by sacrificing the main financial objectives of the company for a "woke agenda" and not doing what the shareholders want.
Fink said he is "ashamed of being part of this conversation," according to Axios. However, when pressed, Fink reportedly claimed he was not "ashamed" by his ties to ESG.
"I never said I was ashamed… I'm not ashamed. I do believe in conscientious capitalism," he said, according to Axios. "I'm not going to use the word ESG because it's been misused by the far left and the far right."
Hild mocked Fink, saying he "can’t get his story straight" which "really typifies" BlackRock’s reaction to all the negative attention that has come its way.
"They keep trying to talk out of both sides of their mouth and now that their term ESG – that they were a fan of until we started launching our ad campaigns – has become so negative that they’re now changing the terminology. It’s a rose by another name. It’s conscientious capitalism," Hild said. "These are all just new names for the same thing with pushing far-left, progressive agenda with other people’s investment dollars."
Hild said Fink is actually "ashamed that it backfired and that he hasn't handled it very well," because even mainstream news organizations like the Washington Post have been critical of his actions.
"The problem for him is all of these attacks are true, and so he's had a hard time pushing back because all he can do is either obfuscate or lie, and he's not very good at either of them," Hild said.
"One of the most egregious things that BlackRock has done is threaten to, and in some cases follow through on, changing boards of director positions at major American companies because they didn't follow their far-left progressive agenda," Hild continued. "They helped elect three radical environmentalists on the board of Exxon whose stated goal was to get that company’s focus out of cheap, affordable energy for American consumers."
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Consumers’ Research, which describes itself as a "nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase the knowledge and understanding of issues, policies, products, and services of concern to consumers and to promote the freedom to act on that knowledge," has defined ESG on its website.
It explained, "ESG stands for Environmental, Social, Governance and is used as an investment strategy to ‘encourage’ organizations to ‘act responsibly.’ ESG works by analyzing organizations across three criteria — their environmental footprint, their stance on social issues, and internal corporate governance."
The entry claimed that "political activists use ESG as a way to drive a progressive agenda and ideological allies in the business community help push this agenda through economic coercion and ignoring democratic processes."
Hild believes ESG is similar to critical race theory, in that some elements of the polarizing issue are branded CRT, but many others have CRT-associated ideas that aren’t labeled as such. He’s not sure that BlackRock ditching the ESG moniker will actually force the company to make changes to the way it pushes "a far-left, progressive agenda," but promised Consumers' Research will continue to monitor BlackRock’s actions.
"ESG is more than just a label that can be changed out. It's a phenomenon that must be opposed," he said.
BlackRock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fink previously responded to ESG critics in a letter to CEOs in 2022.
The ESG movement "is not about politics. It is not a social or ideological agenda. It is not 'woke,'" wrote Fink. "It is capitalism, driven by mutually beneficial relationships between you and the employees, customers, suppliers, and communities your company relies on to prosper … Make no mistake, the fair pursuit of profit is still what animates markets; and long-term profitability is the measure by which markets will ultimately determine your company's success."
Republican leaders on the House Financial Services Committee created a task force in February to coordinate a response to ESG investment criteria.
Fox News' Gabriel Hays, Hanna Panreck, Aaron Kliegman and Thomas Phippen contributed to this report.
