[7][10] Fink started his career in 1976 at First Boston, a New York-based investment bank,[11] where he was one of the first mortgage-backed security traders and eventually managed the firm's bond department.

He also started the Financial Futures and Options Department and headed the Mortgage and Real Estate Products Group.

[3] The experience influenced his decision to start a company that would invest clients' money while also incorporating comprehensive risk management.

[15] In 2003, Fink helped to negotiate the resignation of the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Grasso, who was widely criticized for his $190 million pay package.

[7] That same year, BlackRock's $5.4 billion purchase of Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village, a Manhattan housing complex, became the largest residential-real-estate deal in U.S. history.

[18] In December 2009, BlackRock purchased Barclays Global Investors, at which point the company became the largest money-management firm in the world.

It recognizes an individual who exemplifies outstanding leadership in banking and finance and has a commitment to positive professional cooperation between the US and the Middle East and North Africa.

[25] Fink is on the board of trustees of New York University, where he holds various chairmanships including chair of the Financial Affairs Committee.

[28] In December 2016, Fink joined a business forum assembled by then president-elect Donald Trump to provide strategic and policy advice on economic issues.

[32] After the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018, Fink cancelled plans to attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia.

[33] In his 2020 annual open letter,[34] Fink announced environmental sustainability as core goal for BlackRock's future investment decisions.

The non-profit Color of Change called on Fink to divest from the NYC Police Foundation in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and subsequent nationwide protests.

[45] In September 2018, an activist with the U.S. non-profit organization Code Pink confronted Fink onstage at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit.