ACCOUNTABLE

A manifesto to save capitalism from itself and repurpose corporations' core missions to a higher standard, offering a blueprint for everyone to take responsibility for using their economic power as consumers, as investors, as employees, and as voters to trigger a fundamental shift away from an economy that is unethical, unfair, and destructive to our environment and institutions.

With lively storytelling and careful analysis, O'Leary and Valdmanis cut through the tired dogma of current economic thinking to reveal a hopeful truth: if we can make our corporations accountable to a deeper purpose, we can make capitalism both prosperous and good.

What happens when the sustainability-driven CEO of Unilever takes on the efficiency-obsessed Warren Buffett? Does Kellogg's—a company founded to serve a healthy breakfast—have a sacred duty to sell sugar cereal if that's what maximizes profit? Government has tried for decades to curb CEO pay but failed—why? Can Harvard students force the university to divest from oil and gas? Does it even matter if they do?

O'Leary and Valdmanis, two iconoclastic investors, take us on a fast-paced insider's journey that will change the way we look at corporations. Likely to spark controversy among cynics and dreamers alike, this book is essential reading for anyone with a stake in reforming capitalism—which means all of us.

Warren Valdmanis has been at Bain for the past 13 years, since 2017 as Managing Director at Bain Capital Double Impact after working for the firm's flagship private equity business for over 11 years. Bain Capital Double Impact is the first institutional-grade impact investing fund in the United States, with roughly $400 million under management. It has the mandate to earn a superior financial return while driving meaningful social and environmental impact.

Michael O'Leary joined Bain Capital Private Equity in 2012. While there, he worked on several of the firm's largest investments of the last decade and helped build the firm's new impact investing group from the ground up. He invested across industrials, consumer, technology, and healthcare verticals in both Boston and Hong Kong, and he served in full-time strategy and development roles at luxury apparel brand Canada Goose and at Living Earth, the largest green-waste recycler in Texas.