This paper examines the effects of a firm having blockholders during the 2008-09 financial crisis (GFC) on its post-crisis recovery. We find that firms with higher blockholder ownership outperform those with lower blockholder ownership in abnormal returns, ROA, sales growth, Tobin’s Q, and asset turnover in the decade following the GFC. We further discover that during the GFC, blockholder ownership was associated with i) more votes against manager-initiated proposals, ii) a higher probability of appointing a new CEO and/or director, and iii) issuance of less net debt. These firm decisions are in turn associated with superior post-crisis performance.