Murry Gerber has served on BlackRock’s board of directors since 2000 – over two decades – and as its Lead Independent Director since 2017. Gerber has extensive ties to the fossil fuel industry. From 1998 to 2011, he helped oversee the Appalachian fracking boom through multiple executive positions with EQT Corporation, earning tens of millions of dollars in compensation.

Since 2012, he has served as a director of Halliburton, one of the world’s largest oilfield service corporations, earning millions more. More recently – as detailed below – he has proactively and aggressively invested big money in Halliburton stock.

Gerber’s entire directorship with Halliburton has overlapped with his directorship at BlackRock, as well as another directorship at U.S. Steel – a corporation with its own ties to fossil fuels. 

That BlackRock’s most powerful and longest-serving independent board member has such extensive ties to the fossil fuel industry should raise alarm for shareholders and stakeholders who have pushed the firm to exert its profound influence, as one of the world’s top investors, to tackle our global climate crisis.

BlackRock is attempting to navigate the challenges of our climate crisis while its Lead Independent Director personally invests millions in the fossil fuel industry and directs a major corporation whose core business is oil and gas. Simply put: there is a profound governance breakdown at the heart of BlackRock’s board of directors that robs the board of conflict-free oversight of the company’s many commitments to investors and regulators.

BlackRock’s Governance Mess – Public Accountability Initiative