Susan L. Wagner — Board Member Accountability Profile
Category: Private Citizen — Corporate Director Role: Independent Director, Apple Inc. (AAPL) and BlackRock Inc. (BLK) Board Tenure: Apple: 2014 – present; BlackRock: 2012 – present Committee Memberships: Apple: Audit and Finance Committee, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee (Chair); BlackRock: Audit Committee, Executive Committee, Risk Committee (Chair) Profile Type: Board Member Accountability — Anchor B (Documented Organizational Leadership); cross-board profile
Basis for Inclusion: Susan L. Wagner holds documented governance roles on both Apple Inc. and BlackRock Inc. — two companies with corporate donor profiles in the Patriot University accountability knowledgebase. As Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Chair at Apple and Risk Committee Chair at BlackRock, Wagner exercises primary board-level governance oversight at both companies. This cross-board profile is consolidated per Patriot University’s deduplication rule for individuals serving on multiple donor company boards. This profile documents the factual governance relationships, not the subject’s personal political views.
Subject Classification: Private Citizen / Corporate Director. Board memberships are matters of public record (SEC filings, proxy statements). This profile documents only governance roles and their connection to documented corporate political activity.
What is NOT the basis for inclusion: Wagner’s personal political opinions, party affiliation, public statements, or any protected speech are NOT the basis for inclusion. The basis is solely the documented directorial roles and their fiduciary connection to corporate political spending documented in the parent corporate donor profiles.
Biographical Overview
Susan L. Wagner co-founded BlackRock in 1988 alongside Larry Fink and five other partners, serving as Vice Chairman until her retirement from operating management in 2012. As co-founder and COO, she was instrumental in building BlackRock from a bond portfolio manager into the world’s largest asset management firm, with over $10 trillion in assets under management. She oversaw corporate strategy, mergers, and international expansion, including the transformative 2009 acquisition of Barclays Global Investors that made BlackRock the global leader in exchange-traded funds.
Wagner’s simultaneous board roles at BlackRock (where she remains an executive committee member) and Apple (where she chairs governance) create an unusually significant cross-sector governance position. She also serves on the board of Samsara, a fleet management technology company, and on the board of Color Health.
She holds a B.A. in English from Wellesley College and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Board Role and Governance Authority
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL):
- Board tenure: 2014 – present
- Committee assignments: Audit and Finance Committee; Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee (Chair)
BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK):
- Board tenure: 2012 – present
- Committee assignments: Audit Committee; Executive Committee; Risk Committee (Chair)
Other Current Board Memberships
- Samsara Inc. (NYSE: IOT)
- Color Health — director
Parent Corporate Donor Profiles
This is a cross-board profile linking two corporate donor accountability profiles:
Factual correction requests: If you believe information in this profile is incorrect, please contact factcheck@patriot.university with your name (optional), the specific claim, and any supporting documentation. We review all submissions and correct verified errors promptly.
Investigative trail pointers (public records)
Education only — verify independently. Absence of hits is not proof.
| Channel | Starting points |
|---|---|
| Federal courts | CourtListener / PACER party and attorney searches (spelling variants) |
| Campaign finance | FEC + OpenSecrets for committees and donors tied to documented roles |
| Corporate / LLC | State secretary of state; OpenCorporates for cross-border shells from reporting |
| Sanctions / PEP | OpenSanctions when international business context is already sourced |
| Contracts / grants | USAspending.gov for named entities from investigations |
Use public-records-research-specialist, corporate-intelligence-investigator, and public-corruption-ombudsman evidence tiers.
Sources
- Apple Inc. DEF 14A Proxy Statement, filed January 2026 (2026 annual meeting); SEC EDGAR (CIK 320193)
- BlackRock Inc. DEF 14A Proxy Statement, filed April 4, 2025; SEC EDGAR (CIK 2012383)