Robert Monks and his longtime collaborator, Nell Minow, issued a clarion call for reform with their 1991 book Power and Accountability. The book’s cover posed a stark truth:
Corporations determine far more than any other institution the air we breathe, the quality of the water we drink, even where we live. Yet they are not accountable to anyone.
That book transformed my life. While leading Legislation and Rulemaking at Cal/EPA, I came to a troubling realization: corporations regulated us—not the other way around. Monks and Minow argued not only for external checks on corporate power but also for democratizing corporations from within.
Robert A.G. Monks, the corporate governance visionary who chaired our board, died this week at age 91. He was the founder of Institutional Shareholder Services in 1985, the LENS Fund in 1990, The Corporate Library (later GMI Ratings and now part of MSCI) in 2000, and ValueEdge Advisors in 2014. ValueEdge Advisors
I had the great honor of meeting Robert Monks in 1998 when we both spoke at an international conference in Hong Kong. That meeting sparked a long friendship and deepened my commitment to shareholder advocacy. Since then, I have filed hundreds of shareholder proposals, motivated by the principle that corporate boardrooms should not be democracy-free zones.
Robert Monks was a towering figure—in intellect, stature, and influence. Together with Nell Minow, he helped shape a generation’s understanding of corporate governance. Yet, while he offered a roadmap for reform, we are now drifting dangerously off course. Texas, for example, is poised to raise the threshold to file a shareholder proposal from $2,000 in holdings to $1 million and would require the solicitation of 67% of all shareholders before a proposal could even appear on the ballot.
Corporations, like capitalism itself, are social constructs. If our institutions are to serve the many and not just the privileged few, we must expand—not restrict—participatory mechanisms. I hope more will follow the path Robert Monks helped blaze: toward a more democratic economy, and a society governed by accountability, not concentrated power.
If you have a good friend you haven’t talked with for a long time, don’t put it off until October, which is when I had planned to visit Bob.
Bob, Millie and Myra
Jim and Bob
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Thanks Alex. I’d love to have breakfast again with you some day and swap Bob Monks stories.
That would be great, Jim. I have so many wonderful stories. I do feel as thought bottom has fallen out of the great Shakespearean stage he created for great battles of good vs. evil. If you ever get to Amelia Island, look me up! (I am no longer based in D.C,) I will do the same if I am out your way.
Thanks Alex, would love to hear those stories. Unlikely to be Florida anytime soon but who knows?
Thank you for this well-deserved tribute – from one corporate governance pioneer to another. He admired your work, Jim, and would be proud to know that he inspired it.