Michelle Edkins is a managing director in BlackRock's Investment Stewardship team of over 60 specialists covering the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. In that role, she is responsible globally for institutional relations, policy on investment stewardship issues, and communications related to BlackRock's investment stewardship perspectives and activities. She also serves on the firm's Global Operating and Government Relations Steering Committees. An active participant in the public corporate governance debate, she was named in the NACD Directorship 100 Governance Professionals list the past seven years. She is chair of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, a former chair of the International Corporate Governance Network and an Aspen Institute First Movers' Fellow. She currently serves on a number of industry initiatives to enhance governance and sustainable business practices including the US chapter of the 30% Club, a market initiative to increase the number of women on boards and in senior management, and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Investor Advisory Group. An economist by training, Michelle has also worked in the UK in a number of investment stewardship-related roles and in government roles in her native New Zealand.