Robert Monks, American Robert Augustus Gardner Monks was a shareholder activist, lawyer, director, venture investor, energy executive, political candidate, and Reagan administration figure. Born December 4, 1933, he died April 29, 2025.
Monks developed Institutional Shareholder Services, Lens Investment Management, Lens Governance Advisors, and the Corporate Library (now GMI Ratings). Watching the Watchers, Corporate Governance, Power & Accountability, The Emperor’s Nightmare, Corpocracy, Citizens DisUnited, Reel and Rout: A Novel, and The New Global Investors were his co-writes with Nell Minow.
He was the 1976 Republican Senate nominee from Maine. Democratic candidate Edmund Muskie comfortably beat him. Susan Collins beat him in the 1996 Republican primary for Senate reelection. His 1972 Republican primary challenge failed to dislodge longtime Senator Margaret Chase Smith. Monks became Maine Republican Party chair in 1977. He resigned as party chair in 1978. Brother died on April 29, 2025, 91 years ago.
Robert Monks’ Obituary : His Biography and Legal Legacy
Robert Monks’ Background
Monks was born December 4, 1933. His son with Katharine Knowles was Reverend G. Gardner Monks. As Washington Cathedral canon and Lenox School for Boys founder, Rev. Monks achieved much.
Monks’ middle name comes from Augustus Gardner, a statesman related to his grandmother. Monks attended St. Paul’s School, Harvard College, Cambridge University, and Harvard Law School. He participated in The Boat Race, an annual battle between the two institutions, and was part of the 1955 Cambridge University Boat Club’s winning boat. Millicent Carnegie Sprague married Monks in July 1954.
He resided on a Maine island with his wife, Millicent Carnegie Sprague, a great-granddaughter of Thomas Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie’s younger brother.
Robert Monk’s Career
How we can assist should be everyone’s concern. I wanted to create a corporate democracy. We will all contribute equally.
Monks became a partner at a Boston law firm after law school. He was vice president of Gardner Associates before becoming president and CEO of C.H. Sprague & Son, a coal and oil corporation. Thereafter, he was chairman of the Boston Company and Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Company boards. Reagan gave him directorships at the US Synthetic Fuels Corporation and the Federal Employees’ Retirement System. He oversaw the entire US pension system as Administrator of the Office of Pension and Welfare Benefit Programs within the US Department of Labor.
The monks published nearly 100 essays on corporate governance in periodicals worldwide. He received the 2007 Financial Management Association Outstanding Financial Executive Award.
Hilary Rosenberg’s biography A Traitor to His Class covers monks and corporate governance.
Sharks and companies are externalizing machines. Robert Monks, the corporation’s corporate governance adviser and former Maine Republican Senate candidate, died in 2003.
Monks discusses business issues, such as how profit tactics have typically centered on being “lean, mean, externalizing machines,” in the documentary.
Honoring Robert Monks
In moments like these, we feel the loss deeply. Robert Monks left a lasting impact on many lives.
If you have any memories or thoughts to share, please feel free to leave a comment below. Let’s come together to remember and celebrate his life.
rest in peace, Robert A. G. Monks. valueedgeadvisors.com/2025/05/03/r…
— Lora Kolodny (@lorak.bsky.social) 2025-05-03T17:31:54.875Z
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