Jon Lukomnik, Executive Director of Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi), was announced the winner of the 2013 International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance. He received the honor at the ICGN annual general meeting in New York, New York. Ralph Whitworth, Founder and Principal of Relational Investors, was awarded the Lifetime Achiever Award, and a special posthumous award was given to the late Michael O’Sullivan, former President of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors. Widely known as a thought leader in corporate governance and corporate responsibility issues for 30 years, Lukomik’s acceptance speech challenged the status quo.
Are we, as shareowners, fit for purpose? For more than a quarter of a century, I and others have called for shareholder empowerment as the antidote to the excesses of capitalism. But do we today exhibit and facilitate those same excesses? Have we morphed, in some horrible Kafkesque way, from the solution to the problem; from the hope of responsible, engaged ownership to just another short-term market participant eager to get our share without concern about the long-term health of the economy and the world?…
Unless we rebuke short-term greed and act as responsible owners, we will face increased and deserved criticism, a despoiled environment, a fractured society, and the reprobation of our children. We need to replace traders with investors, and investors with owners. We need to return to investing strategies that favor real long-term growth, that improve not just our portfolios but the real economy as well.
About the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute. The IRRC Institute is a not-for-profit organization that provides thought leadership at the intersection of corporate responsibility and the informational needs of investors. Headquartered in New York, NY, the IRRCi funds environmental, social, and corporate governance research, as well as research on capital market context that impacts how investors and companies make decisions.
About the International Corporate Governance Network. The London-based International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) is the leading global voice of institutional investors. Its 600 members, from 50 countries, collectively represent approximately $18 trillion (US) in funds under management.
Jon Lukomnik serves as executive director of the IRRC Institute. A columnist for Compliance Week, Mr. Lukomnik previously chaired the executive committee of the Council of Institutional Investors, co-founded and served as a governor of the International Corporate Governance Network and is co-author of the award-winning The New Capitalists: How Citizen Investors Are Reshaping the Corporate Agenda
from Harvard Business School Press, 2006.
The National Association of Corporate Directors has named Lukomnik one of the 100 most influential people in American corporate governance every year since 2011. He was previously named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” by Ethisphere Magazine. Lukomnik served as the designated investment advisor for the New York City pension funds in the 1990s. In addition to his responsibilities at the Institute, Lukomnik is the managing partner of Sinclair Capital L.L.C., a strategic consultancy to the investment management industry, corporations, and institutional investors.
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