Who is BlackRockās New EMEA Sustainability Leader?
Finance giant BlackRock has appointed Louise Kooy-Henckel as its new EMEA Head of Sustainable and Transition Solutions (STS).
The company said in its announcement: āLouise brings over 25 years of expertise in asset management and sustainable investing. She will lead our efforts in sustainable and transition investing in the EMEA region, working closely with partners from across the firm.
āLouise brings strong product development experience across public and private markets and will help deliver investment insights to clients on topics such as the energy transition, physical climate risks and resilience.ā
About Louise Kooy-Henckel
Louise began her career at State Street in 1996 before joining J.P. Morgan Asset Management in 1997.
She spent nearly 20 years at the company, including as Managing Director of its Global Equities team.
In 2016 Louise joined Wellington Management where she was Managing Director and Investment Director, Sustainable and Impact Investments EMEA.
She is also Non-Executive Director of Pensions for Purpose, a ābridge between asset managers, pension funds and their professional advisers, to encourage the flow of capital towards impact investment.ā
BlackRockās Sustainable and Transition investing
BlackRock has a wide range of investment platforms including its US$1tn sustainable platform that enables investor choice.
Its global transition platform covers categories like Paris-aligned benchmarks, green bonds and custom decarbonisation mandates.
It has allocated US$1bn in EV charging infrastructure worldwide as a private investor and invested in a large carbon capture and storage pipeline project.
Nearly 1,000 of BlackRock’s investment funds have been screened to constrain investments by avoiding issuers or business activities within certain environmental, social or governance characteristics.
About Louise’s new role
In her new role, Louise will be based in London and report to Helen Lees-Jones, the Global Head of STS.
This appointment comes at a time when client demand for sustainable and transition investing is at its highest in the EMEA region.
A BlackRock internal memo highlighted that 100% of its largest client relationships in Europe have made net zero commitments for their organisations.
The financial giant has made significant changes to its sustainability and ESG initiatives.
In January 2025, it withdrew from the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM) which then suspended its activities for a review.
“We are disappointed to see any investor withdraw, but as a voluntary initiative, we respect any individual decisions signatories take,” NZAM says.
“Climate risk is financial risk. NZAM exists to help investors mitigate these risks and to realise the benefits of the economic transition to net zero.”
BlackRock said in a letter to clients that its NZAM membership “caused confusion regarding BlackRock’s practices and subjected us to legal inquiries from various public officials.”
Upon initiating its initiative review, NZAM removed its commitment statement and list of signatories from its website.
It has also suspended activities to track signatory implementation and reporting.
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