Mission Statement

The Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance is founded on the premise that today the corporation is an institution which is expected to enhance society. Corporations strive to improve the welfare of their constituents – primarily shareholders, as well as employees, suppliers, and customers – and thus contribute to the aggregate welfare of the broader community.

The Center explores the various means by which corporations can meet these complex expectations from an interdisciplinary perspective, recognizing that remaining competitive in their respective markets is a prerequisite for their survival and contribution to society.

Over the last 100 years, the hopes and expectations as to what corporations can and should provide have extended considerably. Not only does society depend on corporations to coordinate flows of capital and organize work, people now look to corporations to steward the wealth accumulation of individuals in the form of pensions, to provide for the health and welfare of employees, and more generally to share the responsibility for the efficient utilization of the world's resources.

Increased reliance on corporations – amplified by waves of privatization around the globe – coexists with the difficulties and heightened skepticism regarding the corporate commitment to broader expectations.

This perspective calls for an enlightened international understanding of the corporation, its organization, its governance and its place in society. The Millstein Center sponsors research and discussion intended to rigorously test and challenge our basic premise that corporations can and should better serve society.

The Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance is committed to maintaining the highest level of scholarship, employing its convening power to enrich and broaden the effectiveness of corporate governance by supporting relevant research, and underwriting conferences that bring together distinguished academics, policy-makers and practitioners to cooperatively develop ideas.

Ira Millstein, Senior Associate Dean for Corporate Governance
George Vojta, Chair of the Advisory Board of the Center