In an article published on the Harvard Law School Corporate Governance Blog, shareholder rights advocate Robert A.G. Monks uses the Obama inauguration as a jumping off point to revisit the role of the shareholder in corporate governance.
Monks, a lawyer, author, and founder of Institutional Shareholder Services (now RiskMetrics Group) and The Corporate Library, bemoans what he sees as a general failure on the part of institutional shareholders to exercise their fiduciary duties and ownership rights as a check on management. He is also critical of the role of boards to provide oversight and calls for a revitalization of the ownership duties of institutional investors, particularly mutual funds.