Robert Augustus Gardner Monks[1] (born December 4, 1933) is an American author, shareholder activist, corporate governance advocate, attorney, corporate director, venture capitalist and energy company executive — as well as former political candidate and Reagan administration official.
He authored The Emperor’s Nightmare, Corpocracy, Citizens DisUnited, Reel and Rout: A Novel, The New Global Investors and, with Nell Minow, Watching the Watchers, Corporate Governance and Power & Accountability.
Ronald Reagan appointed him as director of the United States Synthetic Fuels Corporation and as one of the founding Trustees of the Federal Employees' Retirement System.
Monks has written widely about corporate governance and has published more than a hundred papers in publications around the world.
Monks is the subject of a biography chronicling the corporate governance movement, A Traitor to His Class by Hilary Rosenberg.
| Robert Monks (2003) Republican candidate for Senate from Maine and corporate governance adviser in the film The Corporation.In the above documentary film, Monks was interviewed and featured to address issues of corporations including how their profit models historically involve being "lean, mean, externalizing machines."