The Responsibility of Directors and The Functions of a Corporate Director

Former Goldman Sachs Chairman Hank Paulson's speech made in June 2002 at the National Press Club on corporate governance follows on a model set nearly seventy years ago by the firm's then senior partner, Sidney Weinberg. Mr. Weinberg, who served as Goldman Sachs' senior partner from 1930 to 1969, was to play not only a pivotal role in the history of Goldman Sachs, but in the financial development of this country.

In 1933, Mr. Weinberg circulated a memo -- "The Responsibilities of Directors" to some of the U.S.'s leading public corporations. In it, he outlined 11 recommendations for board of directors, from the need to report all stock options on the balance sheet to strict limitations on loans to officers. These were issues that Mr. Weinberg approached from extensive experience and he was to serve on the boards of over 30 companies during his career. The memo was an early statement on corporate governance, a cause he championed for the next four decades.

The Responsibility of Directors 1933 [PDF, 20KB]

In 1949, he addressed the Harvard Business School Club of Cleveland again speaking on "The Functions of a Corporate Director".

The Functions of a Corporate Director 1949 [PDF, 47KB]