IRRCi has a new home! The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi) announced that it has selected the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance (Weinberg Center) at the University of Delaware as its successor organization. The Weinberg Center will receive a grant from IRRCi in excess of $1 million as part of the successor transition.
With these funds, the Weinberg Center will materially expand its environmental, social, corporate governance and capital market research, and also maintain the full IRRCi research library so that more than 75 research reports remain publicly available at no cost. The Weinberg Center also will continue to fund and manage the annual IRRCi Investor Research Award that recognizes outstanding practitioner and academic research.
According to Linda E. Scott, the IRRCi Board Chairwoman:
The IRRCi has become the preeminent source of objective and relevant research examining the intersection of investments with environmental, social and governance issues. From day one, our plan was to fund innovative research with our seed money, and then transition the remaining assets to another well-respected organization aligned with our mission.We selected the Weinberg Center because it is a highly respected corporate governance thought leader, will sustain IRRC’s important work, and will take our vision to the next level by further expanding unbiased and objective investor research. The IRRCi Board is confident that combining the strengths of the Weinberg Center and the IRRCi will provide investors, corporate boards, executives, regulators, academics, finance experts, attorneys, and other interested parties with fact-based information and data on how to best improve our capital markets and govern public companies.
“The Weinberg Center is honored to have been selected as the successor organization to the IRRCi. The Center looks forward to continuing the outstanding work and legacy of the IRRCi,” said Charles M. Elson, Edgar S. Woolard, Jr., Chair in Corporate Governance, Professor of Finance and Director of the Weinberg Center at the University of Delaware.
Said Dennis Assanis, President of the University of Delaware,
The University of Delaware and the Weinberg Center share the IRRCi’s mission to provide the highest quality research that informs and empowers decision-makers in the complex arena of corporate governance. This announcement is a testimony to the thought leadership and recognized excellence of the Weinberg Center in the field of corporate governance and social responsibility. We are proud that the Weinberg Center will carry on IRRCi’s important work.
The selection of the Weinberg Center culminates a planned multi-year succession process undertaken by the Institute’s Board that included consideration of more than 25 organizations. The grant and the transfer of IRRCi’s intellectual property to the Weinberg Center is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2018. Until then, the Institute will continue to publish research, including studies that benchmark microcap public companies and examine the governance of data privacy. IRRCi also anticipates announcing the winners of the 2018 Investor Research Award prior to the transition.
The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute was formed following the 2005 sale of IRRC to Institutional Shareholder Services (now MSCI) to act as a catalyst for thought leaders, and to sponsor research on corporate governance and corporate responsibility issues that are important to the linkage of broad societal issues to investment performance. Since that time, IRRCi has issued 75 research reports, is in the seventh year of its Investor Research Award, and has become a trusted source of objective and impactful investor research. Its research is frequently cited by regulators, lawmakers, academics and leading investors.
The IRRC Institute is a nonprofit research organization that funds academic and practitioner research that enables investors, policymakers and other stakeholders to make data-driven decisions. IRRCi research covers a wide range of topics of interest to investors, is objective, unbiased and disseminated widely. Follow IRRCi on Twitter at @IRRCResearch.
The John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance was established in 2000 at the University of Delaware and is part of the College of Arts & Sciences. It is one of the longest-standing corporate governance centers in academia, and the first and only corporate governance center in the State of Delaware, the legal home for a majority of the nation’s public corporations. Maybe the Weinberg Center will start using their Twitter account at @UDelCorpGov.
Congratulations to both organizations. The Institute’s board made the right choice. I know the Weinberg Center will provide a great new home and look forward to even more important research created by new synergies.
Imported from Linkedin
Jon Lukomnik
Author – What They Do With Your Money: How The Financial System Fails Us and How To Fix
Thanks Jim. And thank you for covering the IRRCi’s work for more than a decade. Here’s a link to a personal view of the transition: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/putting-myself-out-job-jon-lukomnik/
Jon –
Thanks for this further explanation of the transition. You have been a long-time inspiration for me with your work at IRRCi, with ICGN and especially with your books and articles. I’m so glad you are helping to design and create a more salubrious form of capitalism.
As you know, IRRC was about collecting and disseminating the information shareholders needed to intelligently. Although institutional investors can buy proxy services, that isn’t economically feasible for many small institutions and many individual investors. As you move forward with future endeavors, I hope you will encourage institutional investors to announce their votes in advance of annual meetings (with a brief explanation of why they are voting as they do, if possible). News aggregators like ProxyDemocracy.org and others when then be able to consolidate such information and make it widely available. Most individual investors will never read through 70+ pages of proxy materials, but they will scan a grid to see how various funds have voted. That simple step can help them vote more intelligently.
Some people retire. You’ve certainly done much more than just about anyone, so that would be well deserved. Good to know you intend to keep plugging away… job or no job.