Blackrock has drafted in a leading Wall Street law firm to conduct an internal review into “employee misconduct” after facing several allegations of discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace.
Blackrock chief executive Larry Fink (pictured) announced in a memo to staff seen by Portfolio Adviser that law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison had been hired to investigate the claims which occurred after two former employees publicly shared their experiences.
Fink wrote: “Like you, I have been deeply disturbed by the series of recent reports related to employee misconduct at Blackrock. Incidents we’ve read about today and in recent weeks vary widely, but what they all have in common is that they should not happen at Blackrock.”
He added: “These articles have left questions about incidents in the past and how they were handled.”
According to Fink, the New York law firm had been hired to “conduct a review of these matters and to provide recommendations on how we might further enhance our processes and procedures”.
‘We could not continue to experience the traumas we endured at Blackrock’
The probe comes after the Financial Times and other publications reported that current and past employees of colour were turning the screw on the world’s largest asset manager with $8.7trn under management to live up to its public commitments on diversity and inclusion.
Last month, former analysts at the firm, Essma Bengabsia, who is Muslim American, and Mugi Nguyai, who is Kenyan, penned an open letter to Fink as a blog post detailing their experiences of “an institution built on racism, Islamaphobia, misogyny and sexual discrimination” that forced them to leave.
“We are no longer at your organization because we could not continue to experience the traumas that we endured at Blackrock,” they wrote.
Bengabsia and Nguyai emphasised that when they tried to inform managing directors, HR and employee relations teams, they were labelled as “difficult, aggressive, or too outspoken to manage”.
The pair said they had gathered accounts of discrimination based on gender, race, disability, and religious practices across business units particularly in the New York, San Francisco and London offices.
The FT said it had spoken with 10 other former and current Blackrock employees from diverse backgrounds who echoed the public complaints of Bengabsia and Nguyai.
The development comes as a blow to Blackrock which Fink said had been “working hard to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion” at the firm.
Fink said: “It is Blackrock’s responsibility to build and foster a culture where everyone feels they belong and has an opportunity to succeed. That must include creating an environment where we have empathy for one another, where everyone is conscious of how their words and actions impact their colleagues, and where every employee feels safe enough to speak up if something makes them uncomfortable.”
