BlackRock

BlackRock, founded in 1988 as Blackstone Financial Management, is "an independent, global investment manager" providing services to "many of the world's largest pension funds and insurance companies."

In 2011 the company reported $9,081,000,000 in revenues.

Ties to Pete Peterson's "Fix the Debt"
The Campaign to Fix the Debt is the latest incarnation of a decades-long effort by former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson to slash earned benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare under the guise of fixing the nation's "debt problem." is part of the Campaign to Fix the Debt as of February 2013.

This article is part of the Center for Media and Democracy's investigation of Pete Peterson's Campaign to "Fix the Debt." Please visit our main SourceWatch page on Fix the Debt.

Financial Crisis
According to Vanity Fair, BlackRock is "far and away the largest money manager on the planet," a distinction it earned in December 2009 following the finalization of a $13.5 billion acquisition of Barclays Global Investors. Blackrock CEO Larry Fink "watches funds equal to a little less than four times the current U.S. budget."

Additionally, Vanity Fair comments: "A global colossus—with $3.3 trillion in assets under its direct management and another $9 trillion it supports—BlackRock manages about $1 trillion of pension and retirement funds for millions of Americans and oversees the investments of scores of institutions around the world: from state and local governments to college endowments, from Fortune 500 companies to the sovereign-wealth funds of, among others, Abu Dhabi and Singapore." At the time of the Deepwater Horizon blowout, Blackrock was the single largest shareholder of BP.

BlackRock and its CEO, Fink, both gained from the 2008 financial crisis and the bailouts that followed. Vanity Fair continues, saying: "Today, through an array of government contracts, BlackRock has effectively become the leading manager of Washington’s bailout of Wall Street." BlackRock oversees $130 billion in toxic assets for the U.S. government (assets the U.S. government "took on" in the Bear Stearns sale and the A.I.G. rescue). Additionally, BlackRock provides services to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the New York Fed.

Global Executive Committee

 * Laurence D. Fink, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
 * Robert S. Kapito, President
 * Barbara Novick, Vice Chairman
 * Kendrick R. Wilson III, Vice Chairman
 * Philipp Hildebrand, Vice Chairman
 * N. J. Charrington, Senior Managing Director - Chairman of Europe, Middle East & Africa
 * Robert W. Fairbairn, Senior Managing Director
 * Peter R. Fisher, Senior Managing Director
 * Rob Goldstein, Senior Managing Director
 * Bennett W. Golub, Ph.D.. Senior Managing Director - Chief Risk Officer
 * Charles S. Hallac, Senior Managing Director - Chief Operating Officer
 * Ken Kroner, Senior Managing Director
 * J. Richard Kushel, Deputy Chief Operating Officer
 * Matthew Mallow. Senior Managing Director - General Counsel
 * Mark McCombe. Senior Managing Director - Chairman of Asia-Pacific
 * Patrick Olson, Senior Managing Director - GEC Secretary
 * Ann Marie Petach, Senior Managing Director - Chief Financial Officer
 * Quintin Price, Senior Managing Director
 * Linda Gosden Robinson, Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Marketing and Communications
 * Amy Schioldager, Senior Managing Director
 * Jeffrey A. Smith, Ph.D., Senior Managing Director - Head of Human Resources
 * Derek Stein, Senior Managing Director

Board of Directors
As of January 2013
 * Laurence D. Fink, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, BlackRock, Inc.
 * Abdlatif Y.  Al-Hamad, Director General/Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development
 * Mathis Cabiallavetta, Vice Chairman of Swiss Re
 * Dennis D. Dammerman, Former Vice Chairman of the Board and Executive Officer, General Electric Company and Chairman and CEO, General Electric Capital Services, Inc.
 * William S. Demchak, Senior Vice Chairman, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. and PNC Bank
 * Jessica Einhorn, Former Dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University
 * Fabrizio Freda, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Estée Lauder Companies
 * Murry S. Gerber, Executive Chairman, EQT Corporation
 * James Grosfeld, Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pulte Homes, Inc.
 * Robert S. Kapito, President, BlackRock, Inc.
 * David H. Komansky, Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
 * Sir Deryck Maughan, Partner and Head of Financial Institutions Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
 * Thomas K. Montag, Co-Chief Operating Officer, Bank of America
 * Thomas H. O’Brien, Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
 * James E. Rohr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
 * Ivan G. Seidenberg, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Verizon Communications
 * Marco Antonio Slim Domit, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Grupo Financiero Inbursa
 * John Varley, Former Chief Executive, Barclays PLC
 * Susan L. Wagner, Former Vice Chairman of BlackRock

Former directors include
 * Kenneth B. Dunn
 * Robert E. Diamond, Jr.
 * Linda Gosden Robinson

Contact Information
US Office BlackRock Park Avenue Plaza 55 East 52nd Street New York, NY 10055

Related SourceWatch articles

 * BlackRock Investment Management
 * Blackrock World Mining Trust plc
 * Deepwater Horizon
 * BP
 * Larry Fink
 * Ralph Schlosstein - former president
 * Keith Anderson - cofounder - went on to work for Soros
 * Michelle Edkins - MD

Featured SourceWatch Articles on Fix the Debt

 * Fix the Debt Portal Page
 * Fix the Debt's Leadership
 * Fix the Debt's Partner Groups
 * Fix the Debt's State Chapters
 * Fix the Debt's Lobbyists
 * Fix the Debt's Parent Group
 * Fix the Debt's Corporations
 * Pete Peterson
 * Peter G. Peterson Foundation
 * America Speaks
 * Simpson-Bowles Commission
 * Erskine Bowles
 * Alan Simpson
 * Social Security
 * Medicare
 * Medicaid

External articles

 * Graydon Carter, "Wild on the Street", Vanity Fair, April 2010.
 * Suzanna Andrews, "Larry Fink’s $12 Trillion Shadow", Vanity Fair, April 2010