WILL HILD
Executive director of Consumers’ research
As the Executive Director of Consumers’ Research, Will Hild is responsible for the alleged crimes of bribery and crimes against future generations and the Earth. Consumers’ Research receives millions of dollars from right-wing dark money groups which he uses to handsomely reward himself and resist sustainable energy investments in the United States. Will Hild is a vocal activist against corporations making environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments. He pressures lawmakers and executives alike to abandon “woke” practices. Consumers’ Research spends millions of dollars to uphold the power of the fossil fuel industry, prevent climate change legislation, and support climate denialism; all of which pushes the Earth further into the dangers of climate change.
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Birthday: 1986
Hometown: Knoxville, Tennessee
Primary residence: Bethesda, MD
Current role: Executive Director of Consumers’ Research (2020-present)
Net worth: Unknown
2022 Annual Compensation: $259,502
Education:
J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center
B.A. in political science from the University of Florida
Board memberships, affiliations, and roles:
Past roles:
Deputy Director of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project
Director of External Affairs for the Culture of Freedom Initiative at the Philanthropy Roundtable
COO of the initiative when it became a separate organization
Co-founder and Communications Director of Cause of Action
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Anti-ESG attack against BlackRock
Consumers’ Research has spent close to 5 million dollars targeting the world’s largest asset management company, BlackRock Inc. With nearly 10 trillion dollars in assets as of the start of 2024, BackRock is the most influential force in sustainable investment enterprises.
Consumers’ Research has run aggressive ads across TV, radio, and social media, helping influence states to pull over $3 billion from BlackRock accounts in 2022, although BlackRock maintained a $230 billion increase in assets that year.
Hild has used antisemitic tropes to describe Larry Fink. Will Hild himself has leaned on antisemitic tropes such as “Cabal” and “Globalist” to describe Larry Fink, who is Jewish.
Will Hild has denied the accusations, although the Washington Post has compared his language to similar campaigns against Mike Bloomberg and George Soros.
Its advertising campaigns lean on scare tactics of high energy prices, the collapse of freedom in America, and the strengthening of the Chinese Communist Party stemming from their ESG investment strategies.
Anti-ESG attack against Bank of America
In June 2023, Consumers’ Research launched an advertising campaign against the Bank of America for its ESG strategies and political stances. The campaign includes more than a dozen billboards in North Carolina, New York, and Washington, D.C.
This campaign also focuses on the bank's ties to China, claiming that the bank “helped build the Chinese Communist Party, investing billions of dollars into China to help facilitate its rise”
The Bank of America’s CEO Brian Moynihan is also one of 2024’s Climate Criminals for bankrolling fossil fuel projects, although Consumers’ Research has launched its campaign for the opposite reason, claiming Bank of America is too “woke.”
Crimes against future generations and the Earth
By resisting progress towards the renewable energy transition and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, Will Hild and Consumers’ Research are exacerbating the effects of climate change.
By fighting against fossil fuel divestment, Hild attempts to maintain the fossil fuel industry’s place as a reliable source of energy into the future, despite the evidence that it is killing people today and if left unchecked will lead to the deaths of 14.5 million people by 2050
Consumers’ Research works closely with Republican politicians to support and enable campaigns against sustainable business ventures. The attorney general of Utah has credited Will Hild for his necessary contribution to campaigns against ESG networks and corporations.
Despite its name, Consumers’ Research is not backed by nor in support of the American consumer but rather bought out by dark money institutions on the far right that attempt to influence national politics from behind a veil.
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Will Hild was compensated $259,502 in 2022, with raises of upwards of $20,000 a year since taking over as Executive Director of Consumers’ Research in 2020.
In 2023, Will Hild received the “State Economic Impact” award from the State Financial Officers Foundation.
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Consumers’ Research and Will Hild are in opposition to sustainable investing in the United States. Consumers’ Research has spent nearly 5 million dollars targeting Black Rock for prioritizing investments into sustainable ventures and has committed an additional $500,000 to target Bank of America for similar ESG campaigns.
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Since Will Hild and Consumers’ Research operate on a very private and targeted scale, they have not faced major public backlash from organizations on the side of ESG.
Seeing as it is nearly entirely funded by DonorsTrust and the right-wing establishment, pushback against Consumers’ Research appears to be more indirect as organizations attempt to lobby for the same causes Will Hild lobbies against.
ESG has been widely encouraged by climate activists and left-of-center politicians, including some organizations that solely focus on lobbying corporations to think more sustainably.
Organizations such as Climate Action 100, the We Mean Business Coalition, and Climate Group RE100 focus on tracking and promoting the sustainable ventures of corporations, as well as lobbying in favor of policies that enable ESG.
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On Bank of America: “It wraps itself in the flag of America, the idea of freedom and liberty, yet it's engaging in all these behaviors that are anti-consumer.” –Hild, 2023
On leaders of companies with ESG goals: “They have this messianic view of their own purpose.” –Hild, 2020
“Firms like BlackRock…are using your states’ pension dollars to push a far-left progressive agenda including destroying America’s energy sector and really putting us at a national security risk.” –Hild, 2023
“[ESG] is really just a stalking horse, it’s a wedge, a cover for pushing a far-left progressive agenda with other people’s money.” –Hild, 2023
Connections within the Polluter Industrial Complex
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Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes has said Will Hild has “helped raise the alarm and armed us with actionable, detailed information” regarding ESG pushback.
In 2023, Reyes, along with nearly two dozen other Republican State Attorneys General, wrote a letter to the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance probing for information about how ESG has impacted their business practices, leading to the widespread resignation of major figures within the alliance.
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The New York Times reported that Consumers’ Research is a client of CRC Advisors, a public relations firm co-founded by Leonard Leo in 2020.
CRC Advisors, as reported by DeSmog, has worked with fossil fuel companies such as Chevron (led by Climate Criminal Mike Wirth) and has represented Koch-funded groups such as Americans for Prosperity and Americans for Tax Reform.
Previous campaigns against companies’ diversity initiatives and “woke” policies have targeted:
American Airlines
Coca-Cola
Nike
Ticketmaster
The MLB
American Express
Levi’s
Uber
State Farm
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Will Hild is licensed to practice law in Virginia
Hild also co-founded the Cause of Action Institute a public-interest law firm
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In 2022, alongside hundreds of thousands of dollars to other conservative front groups, Consumers’ Trust donated:
$317,500 to State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) a similarly aligned non-profit focused on “responsible financial management”
In 2022, Consumers’ Research was the top donor to SFOF.
According to SFOFExposed, SFOF “emerged on the political scene in recent years as a key player in the Right’s campaign to use the power of state governments to blacklist companies that embrace environmental, social, and governance factors (ESG) in their business and investing practices.”
$10,000 to the New Tolerance Campaign, an anti-woke watchdog organization
$18,500 to the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is a major contributor to model conservative legislation
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Consumers’ Research is primarily funded through DonorsTrust, a massive dark money donation group that helps fund nearly every major conservation and libertarian organization.
In 2022, $9,010,000 of Consumers’ Research’s $10,423,274 in revenue was donated by DonorsTrust.
Between 2019 and 2021, the revenue of Consumers’ Research increased from around $750,000 to $7.9 million, thanks to DonorsTrust.
DonorstTrust is deeply connected to Leanard Leo, a conservation legal activist and ex-vice president of the Federalist Society. Leonard Leo is widely regarded as the most influential man in the United States justice system, including putting together the list of potential nominees for Donald Trump’s Supreme Court.
According to Monitoring Influence, in the early 2000s, Consumers’ Research’s revenues dwindled down to nothing, but it was revived by a $500,000 grant from the Bradley Foundation, which has “had an outsized impact on spreading far-right politics in America.”
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In 2022, Consumers’ Research led a campaign against State Farm (led by Michael Tipsord, another 2024 Climate Criminal). The campaign was called “Like a Creepy Neighbor.”
Will Hild told Fox News Digital: “Consumers’ Research is launching a campaign against State Farm Insurance because, recently a whistleblower brought to our attention evidence – email chain traffic – showing that they have been intentionally trying to target kindergartners for discussions around transgender issues, sexual identity issues, without notifying their parents or without their consent, and specifically targeting them in the public schools.”
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Leonard Leo does not have a formal role on the small team at Consumers’ Research, but Will Hild called him an “adviser to the organization,” and Leo said “the woke capitalism battle is a very high priority for me, and I am very excited about what Consumers’ Research is doing.”