A Traitor to His Class

Though born into a wealthy and powerful Boston family whose roots were established in New England before the Revolution, Robert Augustus Gardner Monks was never intent on simply leading a life of privileged luxury. Driven by a deep desire to make himself "useful to the world," he took steps to meet this end. He graduated from Harvard University - Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude - and Harvard Law School, and subsequently joined Boston's second largest law firm where he became one of its youngest partners ever. Monks then embarked on a new path which led him towards his ultimate goal of far-reaching public service. Vividly tracing his extraordinary journey, A Traitor to His Class follows Monks's experiences as businessman, corporate attorney, venture capitalist, regulator, and finally, shareholder activist. Included are his term as the Department of Labor's pensions administrator and his bid for the Sears board of directors, a run that won him recognition as "the leader of the battle to reform American corporate governance.". Instrumental to his battle is his brainchild, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), which today handles voting for hundreds of corporate and government pension funds and represents a deciding factor in many contentious proxy votes at large companies both here and abroad. A Traitor to His Class intricately details ISS's growing impact, as well as that of the Lens Fund, whose forays into poorly managed corporations have set new precedents for shareholder activism.