Left investment firm doom corporate USA, Bud Light

News
3 June 2023 | 09:38
Wake governance that has sent profits to companies like Anheuser-Busch and Target often begins with left-leaning investment firms pushing them to push products their way, a former Anheuser-Busch executive said.
During an appearance on Fox News̵[ads1]7; Jesse Watters Primetime, Anson Frericks said that behind-the-scenes politics of firms such as New York-based BlackRock and Pennsylvania-based Vanguard are spurring many of the controversial decisions that sparked nationwide boycotts by longtime more conservative clients — such as the the ill-fated Bud Light campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney
He said BlackRock, Vanguard and another firm, State Street, manage about $20 trillion in capital and use their influence to advance policy agendas pushed on them by progressive lawmakers who oversee state pension funds that the companies profit from.
One of the firms manages California’s pension fund – the largest in the country – and California politicians can have a big influence on the corporate governance and policies of the firms in which they invest so much, he added.
“In California, for example, they recently mandated the big pension funds that they divest from things like fossil fuels and oil and gas, and then Bill de Blasio, [former] mayor of New York, was there, he did the same thing, he said.
“But they’re also telling BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard that if they’re going to manage their money, they’re going to have to commit to things like ESG — diversity, equity, inclusion — and adopt whole firm commitments that they’re therefore forcing on all the biggest companies in corporate -America.”
Frericks added that he left his job at the St. Louis-based beer titan in part because of the way much of corporate America acted when it came to defying public sentiment when he got involved in politics.
He pointed to Atlanta, home of Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, which was outraged after Georgia lawmakers passed election integrity laws.