Ralph Victor Whitworth (October 12, 1955 – September 29, 2016)[1] was an American businessman who was a founder of Relational Investors LLC, a private investment management firm based in San Diego, California, which primarily seeks out value stocks at companies deemed to be underperforming due to poor capital allocation discipline and corporate governance.
[2] In 1984, Whitworth took a leave of absence from the Laxalt office to serve as deputy to the chairman - Voters for Reagan-Bush in president Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign.
During this time, he authored a petition for rulemaking to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), which paved the way for a major reform in 1992 of the SEC's shareholder communications and executive compensation disclosure rules, including a rule allowing "short slate" director nominations.
[17] He has also donated $1 million to the assist at-risk students in the Humboldt County school system in Winnemucca,[18] and established an endowment fund at the University of Nevada, Reno,[19] that bears his name.
In 2003 Whitworth donated $1 million to Adopt-A-Minefield,[20] a United Kingdom-based charity that raises awareness about land mines and their associated problems.