Nell Minow — Director and Co-Founder
Ms. Minow was named one of the 20 most influential people in corporate governance by Directorship magazine in 2007 and was dubbed "the queen of good corporate governance" by BusinessWeek online in 2003. Prior to co-founding GMI’s predecessor firm, The Corporate Library, Ms. Minow was a Principal of Lens, a $100 million investment firm that took positions in underperforming companies and used shareholder activism to increase their value. Her other professional experience includes serving as President of Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc. and as an attorney at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Justice. She has received a number of awards, most recently Albany Law School's Kate Stoneman Award in 2009, awarded to individuals in the legal profession who have demonstrated a commitment to actively seeking change and expanding opportunities for women. Ms. Minow was also the sole recipient of the International Corporate Governance Network Award in 2008 for exceptional achievement in the field of corporate governance. She has authored more than 200 articles and co-authored three books with Robert A.G. Monks, most recently the 4th edition of an MBA textbook called Corporate Governance, published in 2008. Ms. Minow is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Chicago Law School.
Robert A. G. Monks — Director and Co-Founder
Mr. Monks is a pioneering shareholder activist and one of the founders of the field of corporate governance. He is referred to by The Economist and Fortune magazines as the leading shareholder activist and governance advocate in the world. He was the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance from the International Corporate Governance Network in 2002; the Award for Corporate Accountability from the Investor Relations Institute in 2004; and the Award for Outstanding Financial Executive from the Financial Management Associate in 2007. He served as Chairman of the Corporate Governance section at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Dubai. He co-founded several influential organizations in the field of corporate governance, including Institutional Shareholder Services, Lens Investment Management, Hermes Focus Asset Management Company, The Corporate Library (now part of GMI) and Governance 4 Owners. He is a substantial shareholder in and advisor to Trucost, the environmental research company. Mr. Monks lectures widly, including at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, University of California, Dartmouth, Chicago and Northwestern. He has testified more than a dozen times before Congressional and Senate Committees on governance-related matters. He is the author of several books about corporate governance and has published more than 100 papers in publications around the world. Mr. Monks is a graduate of Harvard College, Cambridge University and Harvard Law School.
Richard A. Bennett — CEO
Mr. Bennett is GMI’s CEO. He has an extensive background in politics and government service as well as a wide range of private sector experience, including the founding and management of several businesses. He worked as Director of Corporate Governance for Lens Investment Management from 1997 to 2002. A former president of the Maine State Senate, Mr. Bennett served four terms in the Maine Senate and two terms in the state's House of Representatives. He is an independent director of Biddeford Internet Corporation and a non-executive director of Trucost, Plc, a U.K.-based firm offering products and services that allow companies, governments and fund managers to better understand their environmental performance. Mr. Bennett has been written about in Pensions & Investments, The Daily Deal and Barron's, and has been cited in numerous publications including BusinessWeek, USA Today, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal. Most recently, he was recognized by Directorship magazine in its list of the 100 "most influential people in corporate governance and the boardroom." Mr. Bennett has spoken publicly about corporate governance issues at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Columbia University, the USC Marshall School of Business and The Conference Board, among other institutions. He is a member of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships. He graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1986 and received his M.B.A. from the University of Southern Maine in 2000.
Jim Kaplan, CFA — Chairman
Mr. Kaplan is a well known expert in quantitative financial analysis and a highly successful entrepreneur. In his early career as an analyst and portfolio manager, he became well known for his groundbreaking application of quantitative techniques to problem-solving in finance, and a leading proponent of Modern Portfolio Theory. In 1979, Mr. Kaplan founded Capital Management Sciences (CMS), serving as President from 1979-1999 and establishing CMS as the world’s top purveyor of fixed income portfolio analytics, with more than 500 financial clients. During his tenure, the firm introduced CMS BondEdge, a recognized leader in investment technology and the chief independent source of research, analytics and valuation tools for the global bond market. Following the sale of CMS, Mr. Kaplan has had a string of successful entrepreneurial ventures. As founding director of Marketwatch, he helped realize the Internet’s potential as a delivery mechanism for real-time market data information. Among other ventures, he founded the leading luxury travel destination site, Luxury Link. In the wake of the notorious scandals in the early years of this decade, Mr. Kaplan once again recognized the potential to utilize quantitative techniques to drive insightful risk management services. He founded Audit Integrity in 2002 to identify risks in financial reporting and corporate governance practices, in support of corporate stakeholders at risk from inaccurate or misreported corporate information. Audit integrity merged with The Corporate Library and GovernanceMetrics International, Inc. in 2010 to form GMI. Mr. Kaplan received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Anthropology from the University of Colorado and a Masters of Business Administration from California State University. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Kimberly Gladman, CFA, Ph.D. — Director of Domestic Research
Dr. Gladman oversees GMI’s domestic research practice and leads a group of analysts responsible for governance ratings. Before joining GMI predecessor firm The Corporate Library in 2008, she managed a team of associates researching global corporations at Domini Social Investments, a leading socially responsible investment fund manager. She also served as Lead SRI Analyst for Domini's European equity fund, and spent several years participating in the firm's shareholder advocacy on social, environmental, and governance issues. Before joining Domini in 2001, Dr. Gladman had an academic career, focused on interdisciplinary research and teaching. She earned a B.A. from Yale University in 1990, and a Ph.D. from New York University in 2001. Dr. Gladman also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Ric Marshall — Chief Analyst and Co-Founder
Mr. Marshall is responsible for GMI’s strategic planning and guidance and is in charge of product development and implementation, especially with regard to technical deployment. Mr. Marshall is a founding principal of GMI predecessor firm The Corporate Library and is the chief architect of its Board Analyst® database, proprietary ratings system, Governance Information Screening Tool® (GIST), and, with analyst Jackie Cook, the Director Interlocks relationship mapping tool. The former Chief Information Officer of Lens Investment Management, Mr. Marshall has been involved with corporate governance research since 1996. Prior to this, he was active in the fields of computer consulting and computer-based graphic design, having consulted with Lens Investment Management as early as 1989. Mr. Marshall has been a guest speaker and panelist at corporate governance conferences throughout the United States and has written extensively on investing in corporate governance.
Paul Hodgson — Senior Research Associate and Corporate Communications Officer
Mr. Hodgson is widely considered one of the foremost authorities in the field of compensation, having researched and written about executive pay for more than seventeen years. In addition to serving as GMI’s official spokesperson, he is GMI's senior research associate for executive and director compensation and is the author of many of GMI's research reports. Prior to joining GMI predecessor firm The Corporate Library in 2001, he worked for The Executive Compensation Review, published by Incomes Data Services in London, and wrote the influential Directors' Pay Report series there. He has written a number of books, the most recent being Building Value Through Compensation, a title in the CCH Board Perspectives series. Mr. Hodgson is a graduate of Durham University (U.K.) and University College, Cardiff, Wales.
Beth Young — Senior Research Associate
Ms. Young specializes in takeover defenses and shareholder voting. She also advises pension funds and other organizations on corporate governance and shareholder initiatives. She was previously the Shareholder Initiatives Coordinator in the AFL-CIO's Office of Investment, where she conducted independent solicitations and assisted union-affiliated benefit funds in formulating governance approaches. From July 2004 through January 2006, Ms. Young was the Corporate Fellow at the Center for Corporate, Securities and Financial Law at Fordham Law School, where she taught Corporations. She also co-teaches a course on Shareholder Activism at Harvard Law School with Lucian Bebchuk. Ms. Young is the co-author of the Shareholder Proposal Handbook and speaks frequently on corporate governance issues. She received her B.A. from Yale College and her J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Wisconsin School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Law Review.
Nathaniel Parish Flannery — Research Analyst
Mr. Flannery joined GMI in New York in 2007 as a Latin America research analyst. He is currently the assistant editor of GMI’s research publication, InFocus. Mr. Flannery speaks Spanish fluently and is currently studying Chinese. In recent years he has worked on projects in Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, China, and India and published articles with The Atlantic, The Nation, Forbes and a number of other magazines and newspapers. He currently writes a weekly online column called “Governance Perspective” for Forbes.com on corporate governance, ESG, and CSR issues at companies from across the globe. He is pursuing a Master’s degree in International Affairs at Columbia University in New York City.
Greg Ruel — Research Associate
Mr. Ruel joined GMI predecessor firm The Corporate Library in May 2002. He worked as a Director Analyst specializing in matters pertaining to board directors before transitioning to the area of executive and director compensation. As the compensation team leader, Mr. Ruel helped guide GMI's compensation data collection through the SEC disclosure changes of 2007 and authored many analyst highlights pertaining to executive compensation. Mr. Ruel was promoted to his current position in January 2008. Prior to working for GMI, Mr. Ruel led a team of television media buyers at Media Power, a direct marketing firm. He holds a B.A. in Criminology and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Southern Maine.
Michelle Lamb — Research Associate
Ms. Lamb joined GMI predecessor firm The Corporate Library in March 2004 as the company's first Quality Control Analyst, establishing systemic controls for the company’s database collection and management processes. She has since held roles including Board Analyst Product Manager, Data Operations Officer and Assistant to the CEO, improving functionality in web products, expanding the scope of the company’s data collection and implementing systems to aid in personnel management and development. She joined the research team in 2008 to more directly apply her analytical and language skills to the company’s research products. She manages the production of an annual market trends survey for a major client and has authored or co-authored several specialized reports including: “The Corporate Library’s 2010 Mega-Grants Survey”, “Starbucks' Options Mega-Grant - Paying A CEO Millions Simply For A Market Rebound?”, and the 2010 Proxy Season Foresight “CEOs’ Personal Use of Corporate Jets Still Flying High”. Ms. Lamb holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology - Linguistics from Brown University.
