Vanguard is actually a bit bigger than Blackrock, and Fidelity is quite large as well. Blackrock may be a leader on forcing ESG and diversity but unfortunately its crept into every Board room in america at this point and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.
“Vanguard is actually a bit bigger than Blackrock”
I agree, and Vanguard owns the controlling interest of Blackrock, so they also own Blackrock. But Vanguard has diverse stealth ownership who are very insulated and hard to target or blame as one entity. Blackrock as one entity is the vehicle they use to do their dirty work. It is this vehicle that needs to be wary of more so than the drivers.
I can tell you from good personal experience that the CEOs are not the bad guys here .. it's the rules coming down from the investment banks.
In general, the CEO's would be perfectly happy to focus on doing business and making profits.
At the end of the day, the CEO is just the working stiff at the top of the corporate pile.