By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
BOSTON (Reuters) – Ray Cameron, a prominent executive in BlackRock Inc’s investment stewardship team who oversaw the money manager’s interactions with hundreds of U.S. companies, will take another position in the firm, the asset manager said.
BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, confirmed information by two sources familiar with the matter that Cameron will be moving to its institutional client business where he will have a client-facing role with pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and corporate clients.
BlackRock declined any other comment on the matter.
BlackRock hired Cameron as head of investment stewardship for the Americas three years ago, giving him a powerful voice in the governance world as BlackRock is often one of the biggest owners in most companies.
Cameron will transition into the new role at the end of the third quarter when the annual proxy voting season has largely ended.
The move comes roughly a year after BlackRock hired former McKinsey & Co partner Sandy Boss to head its investment stewardship operations around the world. Boss is based in London and reports to BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink. Cameron is based in New York.
With $9 trillion in assets under management, BlackRock has become increasingly influential in guiding corporate behavior and has recently signaled that it is taking a much tougher stance on climate and sustainability issues.
Every year BlackRock, Vanguard Group and State Street Group vote on critical corporate issues like lobbying disclosures and a company’s stance on climate change and can help decide who sits on a company’s board.
Cameron joined BlackRock from Stifel Financial Corp, where he was head of corporate access. He replaced Zach Oleksiuk who joined investment bank Evercore where he advises companies on engaging with investors, including activist hedge funds.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Leslie Adler)
