What has the world come to: Inspiration from the CEO of Blackrock
More purpose trumps maximizing profit at the world’s largest asset manager. Member-owned financial cooperatives should take note.
Maybe it’s a sign of the times. Or, maybe it’s the universe saying to expect the unexpected.
I never expected Blackrock CEO Larry Fink — the leader of the world’s largest asset manager — to offer inspiration and insight on what it means to reassess core assumptions about modern finance.
“The money we manage is not our own,” Fink says his annual letter to CEOs that was released in early January 2020. “It belongs to people … trying to finance long-term goals like retirement. And we have a deep responsibility … to promote long-term value.”
BlackRock has $7 trillion — yes, that’s trillion with a “t” — under management. Its CEO seems an unlikely source for inspiration for a member-owned financial cooperative. Yet, his words could be those of the CEO of a $50 million credit union speaking at the institution’s annual meeting in a local union hall.
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