Larry Fink

Larry Fink co-founded BlackRock in 1988 and has served as its CEO since, building it into the world's largest asset management firm with over $10 trillion in assets under management — a scale that makes BlackRock's investment positions a significant force in global capital markets and gives Fink's voice on economic and social issues a weight that few private sector leaders command. Born November 2, 1952, in Van Nuys, California, Fink graduated from UCLA with a degree in political science and earned his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He built his career at First Boston before founding BlackRock with seven partners.

Fink is Jewish and has been open about his identity and its connection to his civic engagement. He has been a major donor to Jewish and Israeli causes through personal philanthropy, and has spoken at Jewish organizational events about his commitment to Israel and to combating antisemitism. BlackRock's investment activities include significant positions in Israeli technology and pharmaceutical companies, and the firm has opposed anti-Israel BDS investor resolutions from activist shareholders, maintaining its investment positions in Israeli-related securities and companies with significant Israeli operations.

His position on Israel is notable partly because of the institutional pressure he faces from the other direction: the ESG and socially conscious investment movement has at various times targeted Israeli companies and defense contractors for divestment, and Fink has had to navigate BlackRock's global client relationships — which include sovereign wealth funds from Arab states that have been hostile to Israel — while maintaining personal and institutional engagement with the American Jewish community. He has generally declined to subordinate his personal values to institutional client relations on this question. At Rank 62, Fink is the most consequential Jewish financial executive in the world by assets under management, whose personal engagement with Israel and institutional investment posture collectively represent a form of pro-Israel advocacy calibrated to his unique position at the apex of global finance.