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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.
罗伯特•A•G•蒙克斯(Robert AG Monks)逝世，享年91岁。他是美国股东维权运动的启发性奠基人，也是一位成就卓著的律师、多产的作家和成功的企业家。与长期的商业伙伴兼合著者内尔•米诺(Nell Minow)一道，他推动了20世纪80年代公司治理运动的兴起。
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.
蒙克斯是一名共和党人，曾三次竞选美国参议院(US Senate)，但都未能成功。他常常提醒人们，正是在竞选期间，他才真正理解到制度性股东在民主中的关键作用。由于家附近缅因的一条河流遭受严重污染，他意识到，企业在很大程度上决定了我们呼吸的空气和饮用的水的质量。然而，这些企业却没有真正对所有者负责。
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.
这激励了蒙克斯成为我们今天所称的环境、社会与治理(ESG)议程的发起人。他本质上持有一种以利益相关者为核心的资本主义观。他认为，对利润的无节制追逐正在损害社会。机构股东应要求管理层超越短期利润最大化，采取对社会和环境负责任的行动，以确保未来的可持续价值。
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.
这种“觉醒主义”让当今的共和党领导人愤怒不已。蒙克斯一直自称是一名自豪的纳尔逊•洛克菲勒(Nelson Rockefeller)式共和党人——经济上保守，社会上自由。许多人会感叹：时移世易，世风日下。
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.
罗伯特•奥古斯都•加德纳•蒙克斯(Robert Augustus Gardner Monks)于1933年出生在波士顿，是一位圣公会牧师的儿子。他出身于富裕的家族，曾在哈佛(Harvard)和剑桥接受教育。1955年，他代表剑桥参加了牛津与剑桥的赛艇对抗赛——剑桥获胜。
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.
在波士顿一家律师事务所担任合伙人一段时间后，他转而从商。赚钱对他来说轻而易举——尤其是在他出售自己担任董事长的基金管理集团波士顿公司(Boston Company)时，这一点表现得尤为突出。随后，他受美国总统罗纳德•里根(Ronald Reagan)邀请，前往劳工部任职，主管整个美国养老金体系。
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.
米诺认为，正是法律、商业和政府领域的背景，帮助解释了为何蒙克斯是第一个洞察到受托机构投资者崛起有可能重振资本主义基础的人。养老金计划带来的广泛持股，使投资成为社会和政治关注的议题。他坚信，没有负责任的所有者，资本主义终将失败。因此，1985年他创立了机构股东服务公司(Institutional Shareholder Services)，帮助机构行使投票权，让管理层承担责任。如今，这家领先的代理投票公司因被指向客户提出“觉醒”类建议而受到攻击。
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”.
蒙克斯还创立了Lens投资基金，作为推动股东行动主义的平台。在这方面，他的财富无疑是一大助力。在提交数十项股东提案的过程中，他为诉讼、代理权争夺和董事会竞选投入了数千美元。另一个展现其雄厚财力的典型例子，是他为赢得西尔斯•罗巴克(Sears Roebuck)董事会席位而发起的竞选活动——这家陷入困境的零售巨头已转型为多元化企业。他声称，西尔斯为阻止他进入董事会花费了数百万美元。作为回击，他曾在《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)上刊登整版广告，著名地指责董事会是“无效资产”。
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.
在他最后一个重要的创业项目ValueEdge Advisors中，蒙克斯仍然为机构股东提供建议。此时，他不得不承认，自己的愿景正被膨胀的企业权力所颠覆。华尔街、商业圆桌会议(Business Round Table)以及其他游说团体长期以来一直牢牢控制着国会山(Capitol Hill)的金融政策。2010年，最高法院(Supreme Court)的一项裁决取消了对企业政治支出的限制，这极大地加强了这种控制，最终导致权力从股东决定性地转向了董事会。
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.
在晚年，蒙克斯谈到了美国梦被企业攫取，以及公司治理的黄昏。但他的努力并非徒劳。自2000年以来，决定将董事长和首席执行官职位分开的公司数量持续增长。股东行动主义如今已成为资本市场的核心特征。他发起的许多反对“帝王型”首席执行官的运动，也确实推动了公司治理实践的改进。
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.
米诺本周对我说：“当我遇见他时，他想要‘唤醒沉睡的巨人’。我认为可以说，虽然过程中经历了一些挫折，还有许多事情尚待完成，但凭借创办了四家公司、发表了无数文章和几本著作，他的确做到了。”我和无数其他人一样，都感到非常荣幸能够认识这位充满魅力的远见者。