Winshel will help the firm ‘unify its approach to impact investing’ through the launch of BlackRock Impact, a platform catering to worldwide investors with social or environmental objectives. She will also be responsible for overseeing BlackRock’s global corporate philanthropy program.
BlackRock Impact will work with the firm’s global investment teams and utilise data and analytic capabilities to develop investment solutions that also meet clients’ desired societal outcomes.
The firm currently manages over $225 billion in strategies designed to align clients’ portfolios with their objectives and values, which will now be integrated under BlackRock Impact.
Winshel joins the firm having spent her career in non-profit management and venture philanthropy. Most recently, she was president and chief operating officer of The Robin Hood Foundation. Winshel earlier spent more than a dozen years working in New York and London for JP Morgan’s investment bank.
"Today, many clients are looking for investment opportunities that advance social and financial goals at the same time,” said Laurence D. Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock. “While the roots of this movement can be traced back many years, the frequency and complexity of these mandates are increasing. More and more, clients are looking to measure the returns on their investments both by the societal and financial outcomes they can help to create. With her experience at Robin Hood, and its focus on programs with measurable impacts, Deborah is the ideal choice to help BlackRock develop scalable impact investing offerings through both public and private markets,” he added.
“The firm’s next generation of these ground-breaking products will leverage BlackRock’s global reach, in-depth research and institutional quality investment capabilities,” Winshel said.
