BlackRock to Intensify Efforts to Hold Directors Accountable

(Bloomberg) -- BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, intends to step up efforts to hold corporate directors accountable for failure to improve corporate governance and sustainability practices.

The firm’s priorities -- board quality, environmental risks and opportunities, corporate strategy and capital allocation, compensation and human-capital management -- will be “emphasized with greater vigor” this year, Michelle Edkins, the firm’s global head of investment stewardship, said in an interview.

In a statement on Wednesday, BlackRock, which manages $7.4 trillion, also published key indicators against which it will track companies’ progress and detailed the corporate directors it will vote against if no progress is demonstrated.

While BlackRock has faced criticism from activists and other investors for not doing enough to take companies to task on their environmental records, Chief Executive Officer Laurence Fink said in January that BlackRock will be “increasingly disposed” to vote against management and board directors when companies are not making sufficient progress on sustainability-related disclosures.

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