Robert Monks, founding father of shareholder activism, 1933-2025 - FT中文网
登录×
电子邮件/用户名
密码
记住我
请输入邮箱和密码进行绑定操作:
请输入手机号码,通过短信验证(目前仅支持中国大陆地区的手机号):
请您阅读我们的用户注册协议隐私权保护政策,点击下方按钮即视为您接受。
FT商学院

Robert Monks, founding father of shareholder activism, 1933-2025

Businessman who sought to move beyond short-term profits and act in a socially and environmentally responsible manner
00:00

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":"

Robert Monks was the first to see that the rise of fiduciary institutional investors had the potential to revitalise the foundation of capitalism
"}],[{"start":12.04,"text":"Robert AG Monks, who has died aged 91, was the inspirational founding father of American shareholder activism, an accomplished lawyer, prolific writer and successful businessman. With Nell Minow, his long-standing business partner and co-author, he helped power the take-off in the 1980s of the corporate governance movement. "}],[{"start":37.980000000000004,"text":"Monks was a Republican who ran three times, unsuccessfully, for the US Senate. He liked to remind people that it was while running for office that he came to understand the critical importance of institutional shareholders in democracy. As a result of heavy pollution in a river close to his home in Maine, he realised that corporations overwhelmingly determined the quality of the air we breathed and the quality of the water we drank. Yet, they were not properly accountable to owners. "}],[{"start":71.97,"text":"This inspired Monks to become an initiator of what we now know as the environmental, social and governance agenda. His was essentially a stakeholder view of capitalism. He argued that the unrestrained hunt for profits was taking a toll on society. Institutional shareholders should require management to move beyond short-term profit maximisation and act in a socially and environmentally responsible manner to ensure sustainable value for the future."}],[{"start":108.8,"text":"Such “wokery” enrages leaders of today’s Republican party. Monks always declared himself a proud Nelson Rockefeller-style Republican — economically conservative but socially liberal. O tempora, O mores, many will sigh. "}],[{"start":126.88,"text":"Robert Augustus Gardner Monks was born in Boston in 1933, the son of an Episcopalian priest. He was blessed with wealthy ancestors and educated at Harvard and Cambridge, where he rowed in the Oxford and Cambridge boat race in 1955 — Cambridge won."}],[{"start":148.32999999999998,"text":"After a period as a partner in a Boston law firm he went into business. Making money came easily to him — conspicuously so when he sold the Boston Company, a fund management group he chaired. He was then invited by President Ronald Reagan to serve at the Department of Labor, having jurisdiction over the entire US pension system. "}],[{"start":173.76999999999998,"text":"This background in law, business and government helps explain why, Minow suggests, Monks was the first to see that the rise of fiduciary institutional investors had the potential to revitalise the foundation of capitalism. Widespread share ownership through pension schemes made investment a social and political concern. He believed that capitalism without responsible owners would fail. Hence his decision in 1985 to found Institutional Shareholder Services, facilitating voting by institutions to make management accountable. Now the leading proxy firm, it is under attack for allegedly “woke” recommendations to clients.     "}],[{"start":220.99999999999997,"text":"Monks also founded the Lens investment fund as a vehicle for activism. His fortune was an undeniable asset here. In submitting dozens of shareholder proposals, he spent thousands on litigation, proxy issues and board campaigns. Another striking example of his financial firepower was the campaign to win a seat on the board of Sears Roebuck, the ailing retail giant turned conglomerate. He claimed that Sears spent millions in keeping him off the board. His retaliation famously included a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal that accused the board of being “non-performing assets”."}],[{"start":267.78999999999996,"text":"Monks continued to advise institutional shareholders through his last significant venture, ValueEdge Advisors. By this time he was obliged to recognise that his vision was being subverted by overweening corporate power. Wall Street, the Business Round Table and other lobby groups had long held a financial armlock on Capitol Hill. This grip was immeasurably strengthened by the Supreme Court judgment in 2010 that removed political spending restrictions on corporations, resulting in a decisive tilt away from shareholders towards boards."}],[{"start":310.58,"text":"Later in life, Monks talked of the corporate capture of the American dream and the twilight of corporate governance. Yet his campaigning was not in vain. The number of companies that have decided to split the roles of chair and chief executive has risen steadily since 2000. Shareholder activism is now a central feature of capital markets. And many of his campaigns against imperial CEOs succeeded in improving governance practice."}],[{"start":341.43,"text":"Minow told me this week: “When I met him he wanted to ‘wake the sleeping giants’ and I think it is fair to say, with some setbacks and a lot more to do, with the creation of four companies, plus innumerable articles and several books, he did.” I and countless others feel privileged to have known this charismatic visionary."}],[{"start":376.31,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftmailbox.cn/album/a_1747480899_4452.mp3"}

版权声明:本文版权归FT中文网所有,未经允许任何单位或个人不得转载,复制或以任何其他方式使用本文全部或部分,侵权必究。

乌克兰无人机袭击致索契俄罗斯油库起火

弗拉基米尔•泽连斯基对黑海设施遭远程打击表示欢迎,目前无人机和导弹的交火仍在持续。

我们不能把全球贸易的所有混乱都归咎于特朗普

世界贸易组织的许多体制和程序已经失灵,我们应当承认这一失败。

欧佩克+将石油产量配额上调至两年来最高水平

分析师预测,在该卡特尔取消减产后,原油将在今年年底前出现供应过剩。

中国出口会继续无视特朗普的贸易战吗?

我们可以预期英格兰银行利率制定者会释放哪些信号?美股还能继续上涨吗?

星巴克在曼哈顿对决中国的瑞幸咖啡

美国连锁店通过升级门店,并为顾客提供不同的服务方式,以提振销售。

澳大利亚偏远港口卷入美中安全博弈

澳大利亚总理安东尼•阿尔巴内塞因安全担忧誓言要收回达尔文港的控制权。
设置字号×
最小
较小
默认
较大
最大
分享×