Remembering Ira Millstein

I don’t recall who suggested I reach out to Ira Millstein as we worked in the ‘00s to set up what proved to be a five-year dialogue on short-termism in business and capital markets. I do remember receiving a call from him, in response to our invitation to participate.

“I don’t want to just be a fly on the wall” he barked, “I want a voice in the room.”

Ira was never a fly on the wall. The many posthumous tributes published about his extraordinary legacy as a leader and advisor to both public and private institutions in crisis, are fully deserved.?

Once Ira was reassured we actually wanted to hear from him he became instrumental in helping us see the most important lessons in the wake of the implosion of Enron - and other business failures since. He served as an advisor to our work and collaborator for many years. We haven’t solved the problem of short-term pressures and incentives that dominate the C-suite, but agreement among the Business?Roundtable, Council of Institutional Investors and the AFL-CIO on a public statement of what needed to change was an accomplishment of which I am deeply proud.?

The achievement was in no small part due to Ira’s craft.

I recall a challenging moment when a business executive representing the BRT was arguing over a point of contention among the assembled parties and refusing to budge. ?Ira offered to speak directly to him once the session was over. Deploying both his signature charisma and listening skills, he was able to identify the broader principle that all the parties were reaching for — and the dissension melted away like butter in a hot frying pan.?

That’s when I learned what great lawyers are able to do — or at least what Counselor-at-Law Ira was so brilliant at. ?He listened first to be able to find and articulate a resolution.?

From his perch at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in the GM building one could see Central?Park in all its splendor. My fondest memories of times with Ira were on that sacred ground, where he had rolled up his sleeves to steward a decade long campaign of reinvestment and, essentially, reinvented how a public-private partnership works at its best. ?

At his funeral service the Rabbi offered the thought that Ira’s soul remains with us. That should bring comfort to all of us. Talk about a leadership skill to embody that today we need more than ever — the ability to find the threads that bind us, even across big differences.

Judy Samuelson is executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program and author of “The Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World.”