Michael Camuñez: Geopolitics, Board Independence, and the Courage to Dissent

(00:00) Intro

(01:44) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel

(02:27) Start of interview

(03:24) Michael Camuñez’s Origin Story: growing up in New Mexico and California, Harvard and Stanford Law School, public service, private practice, and moving between government, business, and corporate governance

(06:21) About his firm Monarch Global Strategies

(09:45) The U.S.-Mexico Relationship: why the relationship is "indispensable but under strain."

(13:05) Geopolitics and the Modern Board: why geopolitical risk now affects nearly every company

(15:04) Should Boards Add Geopolitical Experts? Why Michael believes directors need broad capabilities and boards should resist becoming overly specialized

(17:08) Energy, Wildfires, and Grid Resilience: lessons from Michael’s service on the board of Edison International and balancing safety, affordability, electrification, climate risk, and grid modernization

(22:34) Governing an Investment Fund: how serving as a director at Capital Group differs from a conventional corporate board

(23:35) Independence as a Behavior: why independence requires asking hard questions, challenging assumptions, and exercising individual judgment

(26:40) The Packard Foundation: institution-building, philanthropy, climate change, oceans, children and families, and long-term systemic change

(31:54) Stanford and the Future of Higher Education: public trust, affordability, civic education, viewpoint diversity, AI, research security, and university governance

(37:14) Immigration and America’s Talent Advantage: why attracting global talent has historically been central to U.S. innovation and entrepreneurship

(40:30) Board Diversity and Groupthink: why demographic diversity and diversity of thought should reinforce one another

(46:08) A “Courage Recession” in Governance: why directors need to challenge consensus, ask uncomfortable questions, and distinguish collegiality from conformity

(48:47) Books That Have Influenced Michael:

1. Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone (1936)
2. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946)

(51:10) Michael’s Mentors: Eli Segal and Linda Griego, and the importance of allyship and opening doors for others

(53:47) Quotes Michael Thinks About: “Comparison is the thief of joy” and the lessons of Ozymandias about ambition and legacy

(56:02) An unusual passion: Johnny Cash karaoke

(56:17) The living person Michael most admires: Hugo Morales, founder of Radio Bilingüe

Michael Camuñez is CEO and co-founder of Monarch Global Strategies and serves on the boards of public, private and non-profit boards.

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Music: “Seeing The Future” by Dexter Britain, via Free Music Archive, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.