Investment Stewardship Annual Report

The four pillars of our stewardship program 

Our report explains the four pillars of our stewardship program, BlackRock Investment Stewardship (BIS), in depth: engaging with companies, proxy voting on behalf of clients, contributing to industry dialogue on stewardship, and reporting on our stewardship activities.

01. Engaging with companies

BIS defines an engagement as a meeting with a company’s board and/or management that helps inform BIS’ voting on behalf of clients. Specifically, engagements provide companies with the opportunity to share their perspectives on topics that, in BIS’ experience, impact the long-term financial returns BlackRock’s clients depend on to meet their financial goals. In these conversations, BIS listens to and learns directly from company directors and executives and may ask questions relevant to their business. BIS counts only direct interaction as an engagement. BIS does not count letters as engagement.

BIS engages individual companies independently, rather than alongside other asset managers or asset owners. In addition, BlackRock adheres to regulatory constraints on collaborative engagement in any jurisdiction that establishes them. (more…)