Robert Kinloch Massie
Encyclopedia
Robert Kinloch "Bob" Massie IV (1956-) is an American Episcopal
priest, politician, author, and social activist—best known for his opposition to South Africa's apartheid regime. He is the son of historians Robert K. Massie
—winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for biography—and Suzanne Massie
, who played a key role in forming the relationship between Ronald Reagan
and Mikhail Gorbachev
, which led to the end of the Cold War
).
(1967), a biography of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, produced as an Academy Award winning film
four years later. Massie's parents also wrote a more personal account of their son's challenges, "Journey" (Knopf, 1975), of which Time Magazine wrote, "Its portrait of Bobby Massie's enduring courage and the decency and devotion of those who helped him makes "Journey" a remarkable human document".
One consequence of the family's struggle with hemophilia was a heightened awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. health care system, its pivotal importance, and its potentially devastating costs.
, graduating magna cum laude in 1978 with a degree in History. As an officer of his alumni class he established the Class of 1978 Foundation, one of the first university foundations to fund direct summer service for students.
While at Princeton he became increasingly aware of the importance of politics in civil society and individual lives, becoming a leader in the student movement for Princeton’s divestiture from South Africa, and closer to home, campaigning for equal access to University dining clubs, many of which did not admit women as members. During this period he also spent three summers and parts of his sophomore year working in the office of U.S. Senator Henry Jackson
(D- Washington). While investigated weaknesses in the U.S. blood supply system, he saw firsthand how industry pressures delayed the implementation of critical safety precautions now taken for granted. Massie’s concerns were tragically underscored several years later, when he learned he had contracted HIV from contaminated blood products, a diagnosis considered a virtual death sentence at that time.
This diagnosis opened another chapter in Massie’s remarkable medical journey, as it became clear, over the ensuing years, that he was one of the very few HIV patients with native resistance to the disease. His immune response was intensively studied by Dr. Bruce Walker at Massachusetts General Hospital and was the subject of a NOVA documentary in 1999. Dr. Walker has pointed to Massie as the person whose immune system launched an entirely new area of international research on HIV.
After graduating from Princeton Massie entered Yale Divinity School
, where he concentrated on social and theological ethics, taking a year off to return to Washington to work on issues of corporate responsibility with Congress Watch
. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Yale in 1982, and was ordained in the Episcopal church the following year.
After graduation he met and married Dana Robert with whom he had two sons, Sam (b. 1987), and John (b.1989). The couple divorced in 1995. In 1996 Massie married Anne Tate, an architect and professor at Rhode Island School of Design
, with whom he has a daughter, Katherine (b. 1998).
From 1982 to 1984 he worked as an assistant and Chaplain at Grace Episcopal Church in New York, co-founding a homeless shelter.
Throughout this period Massie became increasingly aware of the powerful role of business, for good or ill, in shaping public policy and advancing or retarding economic, social and environmental progress. Determined to better understand and find ways to harness this powerful force, Massie entered Harvard Business School
in 1985, on scholarship. He completed the core of Harvard’s M.B.A. program as a portion of his doctoral studies, and went on to write his dissertation on how large institutions balance organizational objectives with perceived moral obligations. He received a Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard in 1989.
While a full-time business student he continued to serve as minister, at Christ Episcopal Church in the working class city of Somerville, Massachusetts
, where he was responsible for preaching every week at Sunday services and ministering to hundreds of parishioners. During this period he also edited the Harvard Business School’s weekly newspaper and served on the Ethics Advisory Committee at Boston Children’s Hospital
.
, and served as Director of the Project on Business Values and the Economy there, and forging ties between the Business and Divinity School communities.
He participated in the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School in 1991, and that year was also awarded a Henry Luce Fellowship (1991–1993).
In 1993 he received a Senior Fulbright Research Award which enabled him to spend six months in South Africa, lecturing at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business and traveling the country to research a history of the anti-apartheid Movement in which he had participated as a college student. His book, "Loosing The Bonds: America and South Africa In The Apartheid Years", was completed over the next four years, and published by Doubleday in 1997. It won the Lionel Gelber Prize
for the Best Book on International Relations in 1998 and was reviewed favorably across the United States, including the New York Times.
In 1994 he won the statewide primary election and became the Democratic Candidate
for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
. Although he did not win, the campaign gave him the opportunity to traverse the length and breadth of Massachusetts and to meet thousands of citizens from all walks of life, many of whom would remain partners in subsequent issue-oriented initiatives.
From 1996 to 2003 Massie served as the Executive Director of Ceres
, the largest coalition of environmental groups and institutional investors in the United States, increasing that organization’s size and revenue ten-fold during his tenure. He also proposed and led the creation of the Investor Network on Climate Risk
and the Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk, a major gathering of public and private sector financial leaders held every two years at UN Headquarters in New York City.
In 1998, in partnership with the United Nations and major U.S. foundations, he co-founded the Global Reporting Initiative
with Dr. Allen White of the Tellus Institute
, and served as its Chair until 2002.
Ceres and GRI pursue an innovative approach to corporate responsibility which relies on transparency and reputational incentives as opposed to traditional bureaucratic regulation alone. Initially considered impractical, this approach has proven far more effective and efficient at improving social, environmental and human rights performance than traditional regulatory methods alone. More than two thousand major corporations and institutional investor groups now voluntarily participate in Ceres and GRI corporate disclosure standards.
In 2002, Massie was named one of the 100 most influential people in the field of finance by CFO Magazine. In the same year, he learned that he had contracted Hepatitis C
from his blood medications. This illness proved a far more stubborn adversary than the hemophilia and HIV he had battled with relative success for much of his life, eventually causing severe liver damage that forced him to reduce his role at Ceres and GRI while awaiting a transplant. During this period, he continued to serve on a number of boards, and was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School
.
In 2008, while gravely ill, he founded and co-chaired the Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Coalition, and led a campaign against slot machine and casino gambling in Massachusetts. In that year he was awarded the Damyanova Prize for Corporate Social Responsibility by the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University
, and in April, 2009 he received the Joan Bavaria Innovation and Impact Awards for Building Sustainability in Capital Markets. These awards are normally given to separate persons, but in recognition of his global achievements, he was given both.
In June, 2009 Massie finally received a long-awaited liver transplant, in an innovative “domino transplant” procedure performed at Emory University Hospital
in Atlanta
which not only cured his Hepatitis C, but his hemophilia as well (the clotting factor is produced in the liver). The impact on his health was immediate and dramatic.
In 2010 he became an investment advisor to Domini Social Impact Fund, and a member of the Board of the Social Investment Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government
’s Hauser Center.
to the race
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
priest, politician, author, and social activist—best known for his opposition to South Africa's apartheid regime. He is the son of historians Robert K. Massie
Robert K. Massie
Robert Kinloch Massie III is an American historian, author, Pulitzer Prize recipient. He has devoted much of his career to studying the House of Romanov, Russia's royal family from 1613-1917.-Biography:...
—winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for biography—and Suzanne Massie
Suzanne Massie
Suzanne Massie is an American author and played an important role in the relations between Ronald Reagan and the Soviet Union in the final years of the Cold War. Reagan first became interested in Massie when he read her book Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia...
, who played a key role in forming the relationship between Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
, which led to the end of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
).
Early life
Massie was born on August 17, 1956, with severe classic hemophilia, an inherited blood disorder affecting one in 5,000 males in the United States. In the process of learning to manage this condition, his parents began to study its history, which led to Robert Massie Sr.'s book Nicholas and AlexandraNicholas and Alexandra (book)
Nicholas and Alexandra: An Intimate Account of the Last of the Romanovs and the Fall of Imperial Russia is a 1967 biography of the last royal family of Russia by historian Robert K. Massie...
(1967), a biography of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, produced as an Academy Award winning film
Nicholas and Alexandra
Nicholas and Alexandra is a 1971 biographical film which tells the story of the last Russian monarch, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra....
four years later. Massie's parents also wrote a more personal account of their son's challenges, "Journey" (Knopf, 1975), of which Time Magazine wrote, "Its portrait of Bobby Massie's enduring courage and the decency and devotion of those who helped him makes "Journey" a remarkable human document".
One consequence of the family's struggle with hemophilia was a heightened awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. health care system, its pivotal importance, and its potentially devastating costs.
Education and family
Despite the physical challenges he faced, Massie entered Princeton UniversityPrinceton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, graduating magna cum laude in 1978 with a degree in History. As an officer of his alumni class he established the Class of 1978 Foundation, one of the first university foundations to fund direct summer service for students.
While at Princeton he became increasingly aware of the importance of politics in civil society and individual lives, becoming a leader in the student movement for Princeton’s divestiture from South Africa, and closer to home, campaigning for equal access to University dining clubs, many of which did not admit women as members. During this period he also spent three summers and parts of his sophomore year working in the office of U.S. Senator Henry Jackson
Henry M. Jackson
Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson was a U.S. Congressman and Senator from the state of Washington from 1941 until his death...
(D- Washington). While investigated weaknesses in the U.S. blood supply system, he saw firsthand how industry pressures delayed the implementation of critical safety precautions now taken for granted. Massie’s concerns were tragically underscored several years later, when he learned he had contracted HIV from contaminated blood products, a diagnosis considered a virtual death sentence at that time.
This diagnosis opened another chapter in Massie’s remarkable medical journey, as it became clear, over the ensuing years, that he was one of the very few HIV patients with native resistance to the disease. His immune response was intensively studied by Dr. Bruce Walker at Massachusetts General Hospital and was the subject of a NOVA documentary in 1999. Dr. Walker has pointed to Massie as the person whose immune system launched an entirely new area of international research on HIV.
After graduating from Princeton Massie entered Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...
, where he concentrated on social and theological ethics, taking a year off to return to Washington to work on issues of corporate responsibility with Congress Watch
Congress Watch
Congress Watch is a division of Public Citizen that champions consumer interests before the U.S. Congress and serves as a government watchdog. They engage in public education and advocacy, and are focused on the following:...
. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Yale in 1982, and was ordained in the Episcopal church the following year.
After graduation he met and married Dana Robert with whom he had two sons, Sam (b. 1987), and John (b.1989). The couple divorced in 1995. In 1996 Massie married Anne Tate, an architect and professor at Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
, with whom he has a daughter, Katherine (b. 1998).
From 1982 to 1984 he worked as an assistant and Chaplain at Grace Episcopal Church in New York, co-founding a homeless shelter.
Throughout this period Massie became increasingly aware of the powerful role of business, for good or ill, in shaping public policy and advancing or retarding economic, social and environmental progress. Determined to better understand and find ways to harness this powerful force, Massie entered Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
in 1985, on scholarship. He completed the core of Harvard’s M.B.A. program as a portion of his doctoral studies, and went on to write his dissertation on how large institutions balance organizational objectives with perceived moral obligations. He received a Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard in 1989.
While a full-time business student he continued to serve as minister, at Christ Episcopal Church in the working class city of Somerville, Massachusetts
Somerville, Massachusetts
Somerville is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located just north of Boston. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 75,754 and was the most densely populated municipality in New England. It is also the 17th most densely populated incorporated place in...
, where he was responsible for preaching every week at Sunday services and ministering to hundreds of parishioners. During this period he also edited the Harvard Business School’s weekly newspaper and served on the Ethics Advisory Committee at Boston Children’s Hospital
Children's Hospital Boston
Children's Hospital Boston is a 396-licensed bed children's hospital in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area of Boston, Massachusetts.At 300 Longwood Avenue, Children's is adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical School, and to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute...
.
Work
From 1989 to 1996 Massie lectured at Harvard Divinity SchoolHarvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
, and served as Director of the Project on Business Values and the Economy there, and forging ties between the Business and Divinity School communities.
He participated in the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School in 1991, and that year was also awarded a Henry Luce Fellowship (1991–1993).
In 1993 he received a Senior Fulbright Research Award which enabled him to spend six months in South Africa, lecturing at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business and traveling the country to research a history of the anti-apartheid Movement in which he had participated as a college student. His book, "Loosing The Bonds: America and South Africa In The Apartheid Years", was completed over the next four years, and published by Doubleday in 1997. It won the Lionel Gelber Prize
Lionel Gelber Prize
The Lionel Gelber Prize was founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber. The prize is a literary award for the world’s best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues. A prize of $15,000 is awarded to the winner...
for the Best Book on International Relations in 1998 and was reviewed favorably across the United States, including the New York Times.
In 1994 he won the statewide primary election and became the Democratic Candidate
Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 1994
The 1994 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 1994. William Weld was elected Governor of Massachusetts for a second term.-Primaries:William Weld ran unopposed for the Republican nomination....
for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
The Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts is the first in the line to discharge the powers and duties of the office of governor following the incapacitation of the Governor of Massachusetts...
. Although he did not win, the campaign gave him the opportunity to traverse the length and breadth of Massachusetts and to meet thousands of citizens from all walks of life, many of whom would remain partners in subsequent issue-oriented initiatives.
From 1996 to 2003 Massie served as the Executive Director of Ceres
Ceres (organization)
Ceres is a non-profit, American network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to address sustainability challenges, such as global climate change....
, the largest coalition of environmental groups and institutional investors in the United States, increasing that organization’s size and revenue ten-fold during his tenure. He also proposed and led the creation of the Investor Network on Climate Risk
Investor Network on Climate Risk
The Investor Network on Climate Risk is a network of investors and financial institutions that promotes better understanding of the financial risks and investment opportunities posed by climate change...
and the Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk, a major gathering of public and private sector financial leaders held every two years at UN Headquarters in New York City.
In 1998, in partnership with the United Nations and major U.S. foundations, he co-founded the Global Reporting Initiative
Global Reporting Initiative
The Global Reporting Initiative produces one of the world's most prevalent standards for sustainability reporting - also known as ecological footprint reporting, Environmental Social Governance reporting, Triple Bottom Line reporting, Corporate Social Responsibility reporting...
with Dr. Allen White of the Tellus Institute
Tellus Institute
The Tellus Institute is a non-profit research and policy organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Its mission is to advance the transition to a sustainable, equitable, and humane global civilization. The Tellus Institute was founded in 1976 by Paul Raskin, Richard Rosen,...
, and served as its Chair until 2002.
Ceres and GRI pursue an innovative approach to corporate responsibility which relies on transparency and reputational incentives as opposed to traditional bureaucratic regulation alone. Initially considered impractical, this approach has proven far more effective and efficient at improving social, environmental and human rights performance than traditional regulatory methods alone. More than two thousand major corporations and institutional investor groups now voluntarily participate in Ceres and GRI corporate disclosure standards.
In 2002, Massie was named one of the 100 most influential people in the field of finance by CFO Magazine. In the same year, he learned that he had contracted Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus . The infection is often asymptomatic, but chronic infection can lead to scarring of the liver and ultimately to cirrhosis, which is generally apparent after many years...
from his blood medications. This illness proved a far more stubborn adversary than the hemophilia and HIV he had battled with relative success for much of his life, eventually causing severe liver damage that forced him to reduce his role at Ceres and GRI while awaiting a transplant. During this period, he continued to serve on a number of boards, and was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
.
In 2008, while gravely ill, he founded and co-chaired the Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Coalition, and led a campaign against slot machine and casino gambling in Massachusetts. In that year he was awarded the Damyanova Prize for Corporate Social Responsibility by the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
, and in April, 2009 he received the Joan Bavaria Innovation and Impact Awards for Building Sustainability in Capital Markets. These awards are normally given to separate persons, but in recognition of his global achievements, he was given both.
In June, 2009 Massie finally received a long-awaited liver transplant, in an innovative “domino transplant” procedure performed at Emory University Hospital
Emory University Hospital
Emory University Hospital is a 587-bed facility in Atlanta, Georgia, specializing in the care of the acutely ill adult. Emory University Hospital is staffed exclusively by Emory University School of Medicine faculty who also are members of The Emory Clinic...
in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
which not only cured his Hepatitis C, but his hemophilia as well (the clotting factor is produced in the liver). The impact on his health was immediate and dramatic.
In 2010 he became an investment advisor to Domini Social Impact Fund, and a member of the Board of the Social Investment Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...
’s Hauser Center.
2011 US Senate Campaign
In January, 2011, his recovery complete and his health restored, Massie declared his candidacy for the United States Senate and is actively campaigning for the Democratic nomination for that office. In April, 2011, noted Democratic strategist Joe Trippi joined the Massie campaign. Massie ended his campaign on October 7th, citing the entrance of Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Warren is an American bankruptcy expert, policy advocate, Harvard Law School professor, and Democratic Party candidate in the 2012 United States Senate election in Massachusetts. She has written several academic and popular books concerning the American economy and personal finance. She...
to the race
External links
- Ceres website
- Global Reporting Initiative website
- Bob Massie Campaign website
Selected publications
- Blogs for Harvard Business Review, Murninghan Post, Blue Mass Group, Volans, and many other websites.
- "Accounting and Accountability," in Robert Eccles et al., The Landscape of Integrated Reporting (Boston: Harvard Business School, 2010)
- “God’s Restless Servant,” in Befriending Life: Encounters with Henri Nouwen (New York: Doubleday, 2001)
- “Effective Codes of Conduct: Lessons from the Sullivan and CERES Principles” in Oliver Williams, Ed. Global Codes of Conduct: An Idea Whose Time Has Come (Notre Dame University Press, 2000)
- Book review of biography of Nelson Mandela, Los Angeles Times Book Review, May 1998
- Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa in the Apartheid Years (New York: Doubleday, 1998)
- “Local Churches in the New South Africa,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, December 1993
- “Understanding Corruption,” Die Suid-Afrikaan, (the leading liberal Afrikaner magazine, published in Cape Town), August–September 1993
- “Corporate Democracy and the Legacy of Divestment,” The Christian Century, July 24–31, 1991
- “From Prophets to Profits,” Manhattan, Inc. (August 1985)
- “Setting Their Lives in Motion,” New York Times Sunday Magazine, April 1979
Selected addresses and projects
- Participation in numerous events related to the formation and development of UN Secretary General’s Global Compact; discussion leader at 2002 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in New York
- “The Future of Wealth on Earth” – plenary speech to the Local Authorities Pension Fund Forum, Bolton, England, 2001
- “The Future of Sustainability Reporting,” speech to joint symposium organized by the Japanese Environment Agency, the Global Environmental Forum, the Environmental Auditing Research Group, Tokyo, Japan, November 2000
- “The Global Reporting Initiative in a South Asian Context,” keynote speech at symposia organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Centre for Science and the Environment, and eight other organizations, Delhi and Mumbai, India, September 2000
- Testimony on the Global Compact to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, United Nations, July 2000
- “Christianity and the Environment,” series of talks and sermon (on the book of Jonah) given as part of the Grace Church (NYC) Parish weekend, October 1998
- “We Become What We Believe,” address to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, February 24, 1998
- “The Poetry of the Possible,” speech to 1,200 General Motors environmental engineers and plant managers, General Motors World Headquarters, Detroit, September 1997
- “The Hidden Moral Language of Organizations,” the 1995 William and Rita Bell Lecture in Anglican and Ecumenical Studies, University of Tulsa, October 1995
- “The Impact of Sanctions on the South African Economy,” series of lectures at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, March–April 1993
- "Fairness and Forgiveness in the Parables of Jesus,” six part sermon series, Church of All Angels, Twilight Park, New York, summer 1992
- “The Renewal of Reverence: Theological Education in the Environmental Era,” address to the Boston Theological Institute, Boston Museum of Science, April 1992
- “Divided Loyalties: Moral Integrity in Complex Organizations” at the annual conference of the Institute for Servant Leadership, Kanuga Conference Center, Hendersonville, North Carolina, October 1991
- “The Structure of Moral Accountability in Large Organizations,” lecture to the Program in Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship, Tufts University, December 1990
- “The Implications of Economic Globalization for the Twenty-First Century Church,” Introduction to Theological Education for Ministry, Harvard Divinity School, November 1990