26 Facts About Laurence Fink

Laurence Douglas Fink was born on November 2,1952 and is an American billionaire businessman.

Laurence Fink is the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation.

Laurence Fink sits on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations and World Economic Forum.

Laurence Fink grew up one of three children in a Jewish family in Van Nuys, California, where his mother Lila was an English professor and his father Frederick owned a shoe store.

Laurence Fink earned a BA in Political Science from UCLA in 1974.

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Laurence Fink then received an MBA in Real Estate at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management in 1976.

Laurence Fink started his career in 1976 at First Boston, a New York-based investment bank, where he was one of the first mortgage-backed security traders and eventually managed the firm's bond department.

At First Boston, Laurence Fink was a member of the management committee, a managing director, and co-head of the Taxable Fixed Income Division; he started the Financial Futures and Options Department, and headed the Mortgage and Real Estate Products Group.

Laurence Fink added "by some estimates" $1 billion to First Boston's bottom line.

Laurence Fink was successful at the bank until 1986, when his department lost $100 million due to his incorrect prediction about interest rates.

In 1988, under the corporate umbrella of The Blackstone Group, Laurence Fink co-founded BlackRock and became its director and CEO.

When BlackRock split from Blackstone in 1994, Laurence Fink retained his positions, which he continued to hold after BlackRock became more independent in 1998.

In 2003, Laurence Fink helped to negotiate the resignation of the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Grasso, who was widely criticized for his $190 million pay package.

In 2006 Laurence Fink led the merger with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, which doubled BlackRock's asset management portfolio.

BlackRock's contract allowed Laurence Fink to cultivate relationships with Obama's first Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and additional members of the Obama economic recovery team.

In 2016 Laurence Fink hoped to become part of the federal government himself as Hillary Clinton's Treasury Secretary.

In 2016, Laurence Fink received the ABANA Achievement Award in New York City.

Laurence Fink serves on the board of trustees of New York University, where he holds various chairmanships including chair of the Financial Affairs Committee.

Laurence Fink co-chairs the NYU Langone Medical Center board of trustees and is a trustee of the Boys and Girl's Club of New York.

In December 2016, Laurence Fink joined a business forum assembled by then president-elect Donald Trump to provide strategic and policy advice on economic issues.

Laurence Fink divulged in a separate letter that BlackRock will be cutting ties with previous investments involving thermal coal and other investments that have a large environmental risk.

Larry Laurence Fink is longtime donor and supporter of the New York City Police Foundation: a group that provides financial support to the New York City Police Department.

The non-profit Color of Change called on Laurence Fink to divest from the NYC Police Foundation in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and subsequent nationwide protests.

Laurence Fink has been married to his wife Lori since 1974 and owns homes in Manhattan, North Salem, New York, and Vail, Colorado.

However, Laurence Fink has been largely vocal on companies taking action on climate change, and in an open letter in 2022 stated “Every company and every industry will be transformed by the transition to a net-zero world.

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In 2022, Laurence Fink was named one of the US' top 'climate villains' by The Guardian due to BlackRock profiting from deforestation.