Thank you for that very kind introduction, Lucian (Bebchuk). It’s wonderful to be with you at Harvard—even if virtually—at this remarkable and important institution.

I also want to acknowledge everyone joining today. Hopefully it won’t be long before we can see each other in person again.

Obviously, the past 12 months have been extraordinary—and certainly, there is no lack of weighty topics we at State Street Global Advisors have been engaged on as an asset manager for a long time, such as Climate and Governance.

Today [March 25, 2021], I’d like to focus on just one topic from within our broad Asset Stewardship set of topics—to discuss the important role of racial and ethnic diversity in our Asset Stewardship program—and provide some insight into our engagements with companies on this issue and why we’ve taken the approach we have, and our plans going forward.

But first I want to say a few words about this moment, how we got here, and how it fits in to the evolving role asset managers have been playing, especially in recent years.

The Changing Role of Asset Stewardship

As a long-term investor in more than 10,000 public companies across the world, we have a somewhat unique view into all the factors that drive a business’s long-term value—across sectors and geographies.

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