From Fall 2005 issue of Business Ethics
A conversation with Bob Monks about responsible ownership as the path to corporate accountability.
A stray cat, an abandoned car, a multinational corporation: What they have in common is that they all need owners. So says Bob Monks, grandfather of the responsible corporate governance movement, who for the last 30 years has been encouraging large stockholders to act more like owners. He believes this is a key way to make corporations more accountable for their social and environmental impacts.
Monks seems to have invented the term "corporate governance." And he had a hand in creating some of the field's leading institutions. He was a founding trustee of the Federal Employees' Retirement System, appointed by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. He served in the U.S. Department of Labor, overseeing the entire pension system. With Nell Minow he founded the Corporate Library, a research firm providing corporate governance data and analysis, including board effectiveness ratings. And he founded Institutional Shareholder Services, which today is the premier proxy voting advisory service. Along the way, he sat on many corporate boards, was chief executive of an oil company, partner in a law firm, and co-author of a leading textbook on corporate governance. Monks has also written many other books -- including, most recently, a novel: Reel and Rout, a novel of corporate intrigue.
See full Article.
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