Blackrock Fund Managers and Amnesty International

Blackrock are one of the worlds largest fund managers. If you are a member of the Sun Microsystems Pension Scheme then they are one half of the current default choice and run one of the two diversified growth funds in the pension scheme. They manage around 190 billion bucks worldwide, though regretably only a small fraction is managed on behalf of Sun Microsystems Pension Scheme members.

Amnesty International stand up for humanity and human rights. They are a non-profit organisation and have had a very worthwhile stab at being a pain in the arse to governments who mistreated their citizens.

I was reading the Blackrock report for the Sun Microsystems pension scheme this evening, like a good little trustee, and it appears that Blackrock and Amnesty meet.

We met with Amnesty International to discuss a number of their initiatives in relation to UK companies and how BlackRock engages on social, ethical and environmental matters, particularly human rights.

We can be cynical and suggest that for Blackrock this is just P.R., which is probably their main motivation, but at least they are doing it. I can't see that such a meeting would have occurred 5 years ago. Blackrock are very much risk driven and it may be that want to avoid/influence companies which are at risk of becoming a media liability.