Kellogg-Aspen Conference 2013
Thinking about "shareholder value"
The tension between shareholder and stakeholder value offers no easy answers. But the Kellogg-Aspen Conference, held March 7-8, created stimulating discussions with experts — and an engaged audience — who looked at the problem from all sides and were sometimes surprised to find themselves agreeing with those on the other side of the fence. This is what the Kellogg Public-Private Initiative is dedicated to: leading the discussion. We invite you to follow along by viewing related content on this page, including complete videos of each speaker and panel.
Nicola Persico
Professor of Managerial Economics& Decision Sciences
Faculty Director, Kellogg Public-Private Initiative
Sheila Duran
Director, Kellogg Public-Private Initiative
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- Russ Feingold represented Wisconsin in the United States Senate from 1993 to 2011. Feingold was ranked 6th in the Senate for bipartisan voting.
- Sally Blount was named dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 2010, where she is also the Michael L. Nemmers Professor of Management and Organizations
- Bernard S. Black is the Nicholas D. Chabraja Professor at Northwestern University School of Law and Kellogg School of Management and Professor of Finance at Kellogg School of Management.
- David Langstaff served as chairman of the board of directors of TASC Inc. upon its acquisition by General Atlantic Partners and KKR in 2009, until his appointment as president and CEO in 2011; he remains a member of the board.
- Donna Dabney is executive director of The Conference Boards’ Governance Center, where she leads corporate governance efforts.
- Nell Minow is founder of GMI Ratings, an independent research firm that rates boards of directors of public companies and compiles research, studies and critical thinking about corporate governance.
- Daniel Diermeier is the IBM Professor of Regulation and Competitive Practice, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is also Professor of Political Science at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, co-founder of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems and chairman of the Northwestern Global Health Foundation.
- Sarah Murray is a specialist writer on corporate responsibility and sustainable development for The Financial Times. Ms. Murray is a journalist and feature writer who specializes in the relationship of business to society and the environment, a topic she has covered since the late 1990s.
- Jesse Eisinger is a senior reporter at ProPublica, covering Wall Street and finance. He writes a regular column for The New York Times’s Dealbook section. In 2011,
- Susan Robinson is director of federal public affairs for Waste Management, Inc. She works with Waste Management’s organic growth and fleet teams, supporting the company’s transformation to a materials management and renewable energy company.
- Henry Hansmann is the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Professor of Law at Yale Law School. His scholarship has focused principally on the law and economics of organizational ownership and design.
- Steven Pearlstein, a Pulitzer-prize winning business and economics columnist for the Washington Post, joined the George Mason University faculty as Robinson Professor of Public and International Affairs in 2011.
- Bart Houlahan is co-founder of B Lab, a nonprofit that certifies and supports B Corporations, a kind of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems meeting comprehensive social and environmental performance standards and higher legally accountability standards.
- Martin H. Redish, the Louis and Harriet Ancel Professor of Law and Public Policy at Northwestern University School of Law, teaches and writes on the subjects of federal jurisdiction, civil procedure, freedom of expression and constitutional law.
- Dwight Hutchins is global managing director for strategy in public service at Accenture. He holds a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and an MBA in marketing and finance from the Kellogg School of Management.
- Paola Sapienza is the Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Research Professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, where she also serves as a faculty fellow for the Zell Center for Risk Research, a research affiliate of the Center for Economic Policy Research and a faculty research fellow in the National Bureau of Economic Research's program on corporate finance.
- Michael C. Jensen is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, at the Harvard Business School, where he founded what is now the Negotiations, Organizations and Markets Unit in the school.
- Lynn Stout is the Distinguished Professor of Corporate & Business Law at Cornell University Law School. An internationally recognized expert in the fields of corporate governance, securities regulation, financial derivatives, law and economics, and moral behavior,
- Brayden King joined the Kellogg School of Management in 2008, where he is associate professor of management and organizations. After receiving a PhD in sociology from the University of Arizona, he was an assistant professor of sociology at Brigham Young University from 2005 to 2008.
- Robert Weinberger is senior fellow with the Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security; former VP for Government Relations, H&R Block; and chairman, Center for Responsive Politics.
- Harry M. Kraemer, Jr., is a clinical professor of management and strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; executive partner at Madison Dearborn; former chairman and CEO of Baxter International; and author of From Values to Action.
- Luigi Zingales is the Robert C. McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance and the David G. Booth Faculty Fellow at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
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March 7, 2013
11:30 – 12:00
Check-in: James L. Allen Center Lobby, Evanston
12:00 – 1:15
Welcome
Keynote luncheon speaker
Topic
Lunch Served: James L. Allen Center, Kotler Atrium
Dean Sally Blount ’92, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Keynote luncheon speaker:Former Senator Russ Feingold, Wisconsin, Co-author of the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
The corporate role in campaign finance, and pressure from politicians for contributions
1:30 – 3:00
Panel topic
James L. Allen Center, Room 240
Corporations and activist pressure
Moderator: Sarah Murray, Financial Times
Panelists: Daniel Diermeier, Kellogg; Brayden King, Kellogg; Susan Robinson, Federal Public Affairs Director, Waste Management; Harry Kraemer, Jr., Kellogg and past CEO/Chairman Baxter International
3:00 – 3:15
Refreshment Break
3:15 – 4:15
Speaker
Topic
James L. Allen Center, Room 24
Michael Jensen, Harvard Business School emeritus
Putting integrity into corporate finance and management
4:15 – 4:30
Refreshment Break
4:30 – 5:30
Topic
Speaker
James L. Allen Center, Room 240
Tomorrow’s corporation that we need today: Getting there from here
David H. Langstaff, President and Chief Executive Officer of TASC, Inc.
5:30-6:00
Cocktails/Networking
March 8, 2013
8:00 – 8:30
Wieboldt Hall, Room 247, Chicago
8:30 – 10:00
Panel topic
Continental breakfast: Wieboldt Hall, Room 247
Corporate structure: Does the legal structure of the corporation shape or constrain the corporation’s objectives?
Moderator: Steve Pearlstein, Washington Post
Panelists: Bernie Black, Kellogg and NU Law; Donna Dabney, head of Conference Board’s Corporate Governance Program; Bart Houlahan, Co-Founder B Lab; Dwight Hutchins, Accenture
CLE credit: 1.5 hours
10:00 – 10:15
Refreshment Break
10:15 – 11:45
Panel topic
Wieboldt Hall, Room 247
Corporate speech—The role of corporations in lobbying and influencing policy
Moderator: Jesse Eisinger, reporter at ProPublica, covering Wall Street and finance
Panelists: Martin Redish, NU Law; Robert A. Weinberger, Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security; former VP Government Relations, H&R Block; Chairman, Center for Responsive Politics; Lynn Stout, Cornell Law; Nell Minow, founder of GMI Ratings and co-founder and editor of the Corporate Library, a research firm for oversight on corporations and executive compensation.
CLE credit: 0.5 hours
12:00-1:00
Lunch: Wieboldt Hall, Fifth Floor Dining Room
1:00 – 2:15
Topic
Speaker
Wieboldt Hall, Room 247
Is the corporation capable of reflecting the views of a disparate set of stakeholders?
Henry Hansmann, Yale Law School
2:15 – 2:30
Refreshment Break
2:30 – 3:45
Topic
Speakers
Wieboldt Hall, Room 247
Who are the stakeholders? Deviating from narrow corporate goals may expose leaders to unwelcome, but sometimes unavoidable, external political influence
Luigi Zingales, Booth; Paola Sapienza, Kellogg
3:45 – 4:15
Closing remarks
Wieboldt Hall, Room 247
Judy Samuelson, Executive Director (and founder) , Aspen Institute Business and Society Program