healthcare and energy analysts

Description 

About this role

About our team:

• Investment stewardship is one of the ways in which BlackRock fulfills our fiduciary responsibilities as an asset manager to our clients. BlackRock Investment Stewardship serves as a link between our clients and the companies they invest in.
• We take a long-term approach to stewardship, focused on engaging with company boards and executive leadership to understand the drivers of risk and financial value creation in companies’ business models. The BIS team leads more than 4,000 engagement meetings with over 2,600 portfolio companies annually. We find that many companies welcome the dialogue as it enables them to explain their practices.
• For clients who authorize us to vote on their behalf, we use voting to formally communicate our support for or concerns about how companies are serving the financial interests of our clients as long-term investors. Globally, in 2022 we voted on behalf of those clients who authorized us to do so at more than 18,000 shareholder meetings on more than 173,000 proposals.
• Our sole focus when we engage with companies or vote at shareholder meetings is to advance our clients’ financial interests. As part of our fiduciary duty to our clients, we consider it one of our responsibilities to promote sound corporate governance as an informed, engaged shareholder on their behalf.
• The BIS team of 70+ dedicated professionals bring diverse skills and life experiences to our work, with professional expertise developed in legal, financial, advisory, consulting, technology, corporate, and governance roles. We operate in ten offices across three regions – the Americas (New York, Wilmington, and San Francisco), EMEA (London, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt) and Asia-Pacific (Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney). Analysts on the Americas team are based in BlackRock’s New York office.
• BIS is proud of our global reach and local presence.

About the position:

The BIS Analyst will assist the lead proxy voting analyst covering companies in the biotechnology and health care equipment & services sectors in the Americas. They will provide support on portfolio company analysis, engagement, and voting. The intention is for the person in this role to ultimately specialize in a subset of the companies in the sector, and possibly some aspects of relevant policy, to support the delivery of our annual and long-term objectives. They will report to the lead biotechnology and health care equipment & services sector analyst.

Key responsibilities at the Analyst level include:

• Learning BIS engagement priorities, proxy voting policies, and key industry initiatives that have impact on BIS principles
• Developing expertise on sector dynamics, including corporate governance and material sustainability-related practices within the biotechnology and health care equipment & services sectors
• Supporting lead sector analysts to implement BIS’ corporate governance policies
• Preparing for, participating in, and documenting engagement meetings with portfolio companies
• Supporting data gathering, benchmarking and reporting to support voting decisions and policy positions
• Assisting in the preparation of position papers to facilitate issue discussion with broader BlackRock audiences
• Collaborating across the team to identify ways to improve policy and business processes

The tasks involved in fulfilling these responsibilities include:

• Supporting lead analysts in advance of engagement with senior representatives of portfolio companies, including crafting memos in preparation for meetings highlighting key data that will be useful in our engagement and stewardship efforts.
• Attending and documenting engagement efforts, including recording research notes to be stored and shared with select audiences across BlackRock.
• Participating in benchmarking analysis and modeling to contribute to leading engagement and voting practices.
• Participating in the monitoring of proxy voting workflow, to ensure all accounts are voted as intended and are in accordance with the appropriate guidelines
• Supporting the development of BIS position papers and reporting.
• Monitoring policy developments to improve the relevance of BlackRock’s principles and guidelines
• Working closely with the lead analyst to analyze companies’ shareholder meeting agendas and related materials in order to vote in the manner most consistent with BlackRock’s corporate governance policies and fiduciary responsibilities.
• Collaborating with client-facing and communications colleagues to ensure client reporting and client presentations meet expectations, and that client queries on corporate governance are responded to promptly and to the client’s expectations.
• Reviewing the BIS team’s output and working practices to ensure risks are minimized and performance optimized.

Desired qualifications include:

• An undergraduate degree in finance, economics, accounting, political science, history, sustainability or other relevant field.
• At least one year of experience within corporate governance or a related field.
• A keen interest in corporate governance and material sustainable business practices, ideally in relation to the biotechnology and health care equipment & services sectors.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex information and convey it in a clear and concise manner to senior-level audiences.
• A diligent, focused, and persistent work ethic to implement while leading multiple tasks and changing priorities.
• The ability to prioritize, analyze, and resolve complex issues under time pressure while maintaining consistent attention to detail.
• An organized, self-reliant, and self-motivated approach to responsibilities.
• Collaborative working style, and strong interpersonal skills demonstrating the ability to build and maintain successful relationships with colleagues across the firm and with external parties.
• Proficiency using Excel, PowerPoint and other Microsoft products.