The International Corporate Governance Network, with members who oversee more than $77 trillion in investment capital on behalf of working people, presented lifetime achievement awards to governance pioneers in Washington DC on March 7. One of the awardees was RogerEbert.com Contributing Editor Nell Minow, who is also a lawyer working on behalf of shareholders for the past 38 years. In her presentation, ICGN CEO Kerrie Waring, quoted Fortune Magazine, which called Nell Minow “a CEO killer” and Business Week Online, which called her “the queen of good corporate governance.”
In her speech following the presentation, she said, “In this century, for the first time in history, the borders on maps are near-irrelevant in addressing major problems. A country could have the best environmental laws possible but its citizens will still be breathing the air from the countries with the worst. The same is true for disclosure laws – companies can just switch domiciles. And for worker safety and wage protections – they can just switch operations to another location. That means that global investors will play the defining role, based on their fiduciary obligation to assess long-term investment risk, than governments. I could not imagine entrusting this responsibility to a better group than the members of ICGN, and I look forward to continuing to work with you all to do our best for the people who entrust us with their future.”
