Beyond finance

for executives to use their companies as a “vehicle for social change as opposed to a vehicle to return capital to its investors”.

Lots of influence

A supporter of Democratic candidates and fan of US folk art, Fink co-founded BlackRock in 1988 with Stephen Schwarzman about a year after “Black Monday”, a bruising October 1987 session that was one of Wall Street’s worst ever.

The company’s mission was not only to increase the assets of its investors, but to give them the tools to manage risk.

The company’s proprietary Aladdin technology analysed financial products to determine what would happen under all types of scenarios.

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, US officials turned to Fink and his company to manage toxic assets that the government took control of during bailouts.

These included some $130 billion from insurer AIG and another $1.2 trillion in mortgage-related assets from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

William Cohan, a former investment banker and contributor to Vanity Fair magazine, said Fink is without question “one of the most powerful men on Wall Street”.

Some of that influence stems from BlackRock’s holdings in other economic giants, including one large US bank that declined to comment on Fink because he is a shareholder.

“People have to listen to him,” Cohan said. “He controls a lot of equity. He controls a lot of corporations. He controls a lot of jobs. He controls a lot of commerce.”

But Fink’s rise has not been without setbacks much earlier in his career.

After completing his studies at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1976, Fink moved to First Boston, an investment bank.

Fink’s tenure at First Boston included a leadership role in developing subprime mortgages, the early days of a market that would grow significantly and ultimately lead to the 2008 crisis.

In 1986, Fink wagered on a rise in interest rates, a bad bet that led to his exit from the firm two years later.

Other missteps have included share purchases of Lehman Brothers three months before the investment bank folded and some ill-fated real estate investments in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in New York.