BlackRock Investment Stewardship

At BlackRock, investment stewardship is core to our role as an asset manager and a fiduciary to our clients.

Supporting long-term financial value creation

BlackRock Investment Stewardship (BIS) is a dedicated function within BlackRock, which is responsible for stewardship activities in relation to clients’ assets invested in index equity strategies.1 BIS’ engagement program has four pillars: engaging with companies, proxy voting on behalf of clients, contributing to industry dialogue on stewardship, and reporting on our stewardship activities.

 

 

 

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Engaging

We engage with the companies in which clients are invested to listen to their perspectives on material business risks and opportunities they are facing.
Q1 2025 Global Engagement Summary Q1 2025 Global Engagement Summary
Direction

Proxy voting

When authorized by clients to do so, we vote to convey support for or concern about a company’s approach to delivering financial returns for investors over time.
Global Vote Disclosure Global Vote Disclosure
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Industry dialogue

We contribute to market-level discussions to share perspectives on topical and emerging stewardship issues.
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Reporting

We inform clients about our stewardship activities on their behalf through a range of publications on our website, as well as through direct reporting.
Q1 2025 stewardship statistics Q1 2025 stewardship statistics

Engagement priorities

BIS’ engagement priorities cover the five themes on which we most frequently engage companies, where they are relevant and a source of material business risk or opportunity.

  • Our investment stewardship efforts have always started with the board and executive leadership. The performance of the board is critical to the long-term financial success of a company and the protection of shareholders’ economic interests.

    Learn more about our approach

  • We engage on long-term corporate strategy, purpose and financial resilience to understand how boards and management are aligning their business decision-making with the company’s purpose and adjusting strategy and/or capital allocation plans as necessary as business dynamics change.

    Learn more about our approach

    Financial resilience in a new economic regime

  • Executive compensation is an important tool to drive long-term financial value creation by incentivizing and rewarding the successful delivery of strategy goals and financial outperformance against peers. In our view, it is important for companies to make clear in their disclosures the connection between compensation policies and outcomes and the financial interests of long-term shareholders.

    Learn more about our approach

  • BIS engages with companies to better understand their approach to, and oversight of, material climate-related risks and opportunities as well as how they manage material natural capital impacts and dependencies, in the context of their business model and sector.

    Read more on climate-related risk

    Read more on natural capital

    Our Climate Focus Universe

    2020: Our participation in Climate Action 100+

    2024: BlackRock International participation in Climate Action 100+

  • In our experience, companies that invest in the relationships that are critical to their ability to meet their strategic objectives are more likely to deliver durable, long-term financial performance. By contrast, poor relationships may create adverse impacts that could expose companies to legal, regulatory, operational, and reputational risks.

    See more on human capital management

    Read more on human rights

Stewardship efforts at a glance

3,300
engagements

BIS had 3,300+ engagements with companies during 2024

2,300
companies engaged

BIS engaged with 2,300+ unique companies across 47 markets during 2024

18,300
shareholder meetings

BIS voted at 18,000+ shareholder meetings during 2024

167,900
proposals voted

Out of the 167,900+ proposals BIS voted on during 2024, less than 1% were shareholder proposals

Source: BlackRock, ISS. Sourced on March 18, 2025, reflecting data from January 1, 2024, through December 31, 2024.

BlackRock Voting Choice

We are committed to a future where every investor - across investment vehicles and client types - can have the option to participate in the proxy voting process if they choose.

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BIS content library

We are committed to transparency in our investment stewardship activities. It is important to us that our clients understand how the work we do on their behalf aligns with their economic interests. Below is a library of our policies, reports, thought leadership pieces, and vote bulletins.

Stewardship policies Stewardship reports Thought leadership Vote bulletins
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To request an engagement please submit a request through CorpAxe

For all other inquiries please contact the team at ContactStewardship@blackrock.com