The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:42:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png The Choice for CEOs on Political Issues is Not “Yes or No”, It’s “Helps the Brand or Hurts the Brand” – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 The Choice for CEOs on Political Issues is Not “Yes or No”, It’s “Helps the Brand or Hurts the Brand” https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2021/05/04/the-choice-for-ceos-on-political-issues-is-not-yes-or-no-its-helps-the-brand-or-hurts-the-brand/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-choice-for-ceos-on-political-issues-is-not-yes-or-no-its-helps-the-brand-or-hurts-the-brand https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2021/05/04/the-choice-for-ceos-on-political-issues-is-not-yes-or-no-its-helps-the-brand-or-hurts-the-brand/#comments Tue, 04 May 2021 12:45:19 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=137810?d=20210504084519EDT Posted by Nell Minow, ValueEdge Advisors, on Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Editor's Note:

Nell Minow is Vice Chair of ValueEdge Advisors. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes Corporate Political Speech: Who Decides? by Lucian Bebchuk and Robert J. Jackson Jr. (discussed on the Forum here); The Untenable Case for Keeping Investors in the Dark by Lucian Bebchuk, Robert J. Jackson Jr., James David Nelson, and Roberto Tallarita (discussed on the Forum here); and  The Politics of CEOs by Alma Cohen, Moshe Hazan, Roberto Tallarita, and David Weiss (discussed on the Forum here).

The Michael Jordan reason for staying out of politics—”Republicans buy sneakers, too”—is no longer an option. There is no question whether corporations and their CEOs will take political positions; the only question is what those positions will be and how they are decided on and communicated.

Every public company makes asset allocations that include campaign contributions to candidates of both parties and lobbying expenditures, directly and through trade associations and other groups. Increasingly, however, the prevalent policy of hedging with contributions to every elected official is unacceptable. The Business Roundtable statement in 2019 about the vital importance of stakeholders as the best guarantee of long-term, sustainable growth and shareholder returns puts the burden on CEOs to be more specific about priorities and policies.

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