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Article

15 Feb 2019

Author:
Paul Rissman, Rights CoLab

Commentary: Institutional investors have developed the motivation, as well as the means, to leverage influence for good

"How to tame a money manager," 6 Feb 2019

Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and seven of his U.S. Senate colleagues wrote to many of America’s largest money managers demanding due diligence of the ways their portfolio companies affect environmental, social and governance risk... The senators are using their influence to emphasize the responsibility of investors as stewards of corporate behavior. This remarkable action demonstrates the potential to transform the world’s largest money managers into agents of positive change... The power of investors to goad business on to a better path is the subject of my latest Rights CoLab article... we argue that the interests and characteristics of shareholders are rapidly changing.  Institutional investors have developed the motivation, as well as the means, to leverage their massive wealth-driven influence for good... [R]ailing against shareholder power yields little expectation of any result... utilizing shareholder power, including partnership with the investment community, may prove to be a much more effective strategy to achieve corporate respect for human rights.