As promised, here a video excerpt from our interview with Treasurer candidate Steve Grossman. This was the last question, and ended up being one of the most interesting. Grossman is very clear that he is willing to use the power of voting the shares held by a $55 billion (or so) pension fund to advance progressive values, both within and outside the companies in question. See what you think. (Sorry about the lighting – that sunny spot on the wall threw off the exposure.)
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Especially at the end where he is addressing what might be some of the concerns. For too long the big institutional investors have been asleep at the wheel, allowing management, boards and compensation committees way too much power. After all, it is the shareholders who own the company. Though I will admit to some concern of public pensions funds becoming too activist in a way that undermines the market. What I mean is that public pension funds may exert power and clout greater than their holdings, simply due to their status.
I think it’s great that he is going to bring progressive values into stockholders meetings. It’s about time we got a activist treasure to reign in corporate behavior. I think a great way of doing that would be divesting the pension fund from the Iranian energy sector. The IRPSEA bill is making progress and once it passes the state will not be able to be sued by it’s pensioners for this divestment.
I like Steve Grossman a lot. He’s brought honor to all his roles, and as a candidate, he has run classy, positive operations.
Thanks for doing this interview with Steve. Very few people seem to be paying attention to this race, but Steve is the real deal. He’s a great business and civic leader and we’d be lucky to have him as Treasurer. It can be a hack job, or a real leader job and Steve seems well-positioned to make it the latter.