Collective action to spur change
The Council of Institutional Investors (CII) was founded in 1985, an era of corporate takeovers, imperial CEOs and insulated boards of directors. Shareowners had little say in most corporate decisions and did not appreciate the potential power of their proxy votes.
The founders were a group of 21 visionary public pension fund officials who believed that the companies in which they were investing their members’ retirement assets needed more oversight by shareowners. They also believed that by pooling their resources, institutional investors could use their burgeoning proxy power to hold companies accountable to their owners. The founding co-chairs were Jesse Unruh, the elected state treasurer of California; New York City Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin; and State of Wisconsin Investment Board Chair John Konrad.
From that day forward, the goal of the Council has been constant even as the membership has grown larger and more diverse: strong governance standards at public companies and strong shareowner rights. Our membership today includes more than 125 public, union and corporate employee benefit plans and foundations and endowments with combined assets that exceed $3 trillion.
Members use their proxy votes, shareowner resolutions, pressure on regulators, discussions with companies and litigation where necessary to effect change. Many of the Council’s corporate governance policies, once considered radical, are now in the mainstream.
Institutional shareowners have a much greater voice today than they did in 1985. And the Council continues to provide the constant vigilance and hard work needed to protect and strengthen that voice.
