Michael Durney et al. report:
CEOs expressing their views on social, environmental, and political issues – is growing, likely driven by popular opinion that CEOs have a duty to stand up for important issues of the day. A 2018 survey of 3,544 individuals across the U.S. found that 65 percent of respondents think “CEOs of large companies should use their position and potential influence on behalf of environmental, social, or political issues that they care about personally.”
I assume "they" refers to CEOS and not respondents. If so, then 65% of the American people are badly mistaken. Being appointed a CEO is not intended to give one a bully pulpit to hold forth on the CEO's personal political preferences. Being appointed a CEO is intended to make one an agent of the corporation and a fiduciary of the shareholders. The CEO's job is to maximize shareholder wealth within the bounds of the law not to be a social justice warrior (I set aside the possible case in which being a social justice warrior is necessary to maximize shareholder wealth). He or she has no business expressing personal opinions that do not advance the welfare of the corporation. See Tom C.W. Lin, CEOs and Presidents, 47 U. Cal. Davis L. Rev. 1351, 1395 (2014) ("While CEOs may encounter different obstacles during their tenures, their North Star is constant: maximize shareholder value."); Elizabeth Pollman, Corporate Disobedience, 68 Duke L.J. 709, 755 (2019) (Corporate directors and officers owe fiduciary duties to “the corporation and its shareholders”--not to the government or society writ large.").
BTW, Stefan Padfield recently wrote at length about the conflicts of interest inherent in CEO social justice activism in Corporate Governance and the Omnipresent Specter of Political Bias: The Duty to Calculate ROI (June 24, 2020). Marquette Law Review, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3623407 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3623407
