Vivek Ramaswamy’s BlackRock broadside marks a new phase in his anti-ESG activism

New York this week has been bustling with energy, as the UN General Assembly and many of its side-events are underway, attracting CEOs of many Fortune 500 companies, as well as politicians.

In one side event, Larry Fink of BlackRock spoke about his company’s role in stewarding the green energy transition. “Our role is to help educate…[investors] that climate risk is investment risk,” he said. It earned him compliments from the host, former President Bill Clinton, who spoke highly of Fink’s “balancing” of stakeholder and shareholder interests.

But back in Ohio, one man doesn’t like one bit the role Fink has been playing in promoting the ESG agenda. Over the past few months, entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy has been on a crusade against the world’s largest asset manager. It culminated in three letters he sent this month to Disney, Apple, and Chevron, three companies in which BlackRock is a major institutional investor. In them, Ramaswamy asked the companies’ CEOs to walk back ESG policies supported by BlackRock.

Why? “I’m opposed to the unilateral decision-making authority […] of a small group of agents,” Ramaswamy told us in an interview. “The proper role of a board and asset manager is to exclusively look after what serves the long-term interest, rather than taking individual issues into account.”

The letters are not Ramaswamy’s first anti-BlackRock statements, but they do mark a new phase in his activism. They were signed by Strive, an asset management firm Ramaswamy founded earlier this year with the specific objective to “compete directly with the world’s largest asset managers.” Strive this month launched products such as the Strive 500 ETF, and a similar index fund tracking energy stocks, which reportedly attracted $300 million in investments in its first few weeks.

By linking his activism to ETFs, investors are provided with a “different voice,” Ramaswamy says. “Part of the problem today is that many people today believe they invest in an asset manager that looks only after their financial value, while these asset managers often pursue another agenda.”

So, where does Ramaswamy’s escalation of the ESG debate go next? “I would like to see a debate on the fundamental issue,” Ramaswamy said. That is: “Does business have a responsibility for receiving limited liability? Is there a quid pro quo? And if so, is it, as I believe, that companies should not get involved in politics? Or is it that companies need to give back to society?”

So far, it seems still more companies are signing on to the ESG agenda than signing off from it. Around the time Ramaswamy reportedly had dinner with a Chevron executive last week to discuss his anti-ESG demands, the energy company set up a digital Q&A with retail investors. One of the top questions submitted by Chevron shareholders, according to CNBC?  “Are you investing in clean energy, and if you are, where?”

More news below.

Peter Vanham
@petervanham
peter.vanham@fortune.com

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This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.