Andrew Kassoy, 55, dies; saw capitalism as a force for social good
His contradictory philosophy, Mr. Kassoy continued, was that 'you're here to care, to care for your workers, your community, the planet, the other people that you do business with in your supply chain.'
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In 2006, Mr. Kassoy, Coen Gilbert, and Houlahan left the corporate world and jointly founded B Lab, a nonprofit network whose lofty mission is 'transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities and the planet.'
To accomplish its goal, B Lab certifies companies, known as B Corps, that meet verified standards of social and environmental performance. These include pay and working conditions for employees; ethical marketing and data privacy for customers; hiring practices and charitable causes in neighborhoods where businesses are situated; non-exploitive sourcing of raw materials; and the impact of energy use on the air and water in those communities.
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Among the 9,979 certified B Corps companies that employ more than 1 million people in 103 countries, according to B Lab, are Patagonia, the outdoor apparel maker; Danone Yogurt; and Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
Advocacy by Mr. Kassoy and others also led to the creation over the last 15 years of so-called public benefit corporations -- required to consider the public good in their business decisions, not just the interests of shareholders as in a standard corporation -- through legislation in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Those states include Delaware, where most public companies are incorporated.
While business language can be rife with jargon, Mr. Kassoy spoke plainly about wanting to 'put purpose and profit on a level playing field.'
In a 2020 Q&A with the Shared Future Fund, which finances projects that address climate change, Mr. Kassoy noted that it was the 50th anniversary of an influential article by economist Milton Friedman, published in The New York Times on Sept. 13, 1970, with the headline 'The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.'
That view had been baked into corporate law in Delaware and the teachings of Harvard Business School, Mr. Kassoy said, but it failed to make companies as sustainable as possible. 'I think the opportunity is to reverse all that,' he said.
Many young people, he said, 'don't believe in capitalism. They feel like they don't have the same kinds of opportunities, that companies don't look at them as anything other than a resource to be exploited.'
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Countering such cynicism, he said, required reimagining capitalism.
To convey his message, he didn't always quote Friedman's doctrine or 'The Great Gatsby' and its portrayal of the irresponsibility of elite wealth. As a father of four, he also found incisive meaning in animated feature films and was fond of an aphorism from the 'Kung Fu Panda' movies: 'One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.'
Mr. Kassoy helped start B Lab, a nonprofit network that seeks to transform "the global economy to benefit all people, communities and the planet."
CALLA KESSLER/NYT
Andrew Renard Kassoy was born July 8, 1969, in the La Jolla area of San Diego and grew up in Boulder, Colo., where his father, David Kassoy, is an emeritus professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado. His mother, Carol (Fuchs) Kassoy, a former music teacher, is a board member of the Colorado Music Festival.
In a 2019 series in the Times about visionaries, Mr. Kassoy said that by the time he was in fifth grade he wanted to be an elected official or a policymaker. An early influence on the need for social justice and opportunity for all was his maternal grandfather, Reuben Fuchs, known as Ruby, who was then the principal at Clara Barton High School in New York City and started public-private partnerships to train vocational students.
'Ruby instilled in Andrew a view that the world and its systems could always be improved,' Mr. Kassoy's sister, Erin Falquier, a clean energy consultant, said in a text message. 'Like Ruby, Andrew saw challenges as exciting opportunities rather than barriers.'
While on a grant from Stanford, he worked on his senior thesis on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where he was mentored by an elder named Basil Brave Heart. It is one of the poorest communities in the United States, and Brandenburg, Mr. Kassoy's wife, said the challenges of extreme poverty that he witnessed 'really drove home the stark inequalities in this country' and were 'eye-opening in a way previous experiences hadn't been.'
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He also served an internship with David Skaggs, then a member of Congress from Colorado. When Mr. Kassoy sought to return to work for him after graduating with a degree in political science in 1991, he recalled to the Times, Skaggs's response was 'Maybe, but I think not yet.'
Skaggs advised him to do something in the world, like exploring the workings of the economy. Mr. Kassoy ended up working in private equity for 16 years and realized that he could create change without being a politician.
But he began to reevaluate his career path after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and, he said, ultimately found Wall Street too focused on 'how quickly you could leverage something up and sell it with little interest' in the underlying business 'or the humans involved.'
There had to be a better way, he thought, of running capitalism to 'benefit society and not just a few shareholders.'
He was driven in his work, in the way he cooked -- his motto, his wife said, was 'Go big or order pizza' -- and in the way he exercised. He rode a bicycle up Mont Ventoux, a famously steep climb on the Tour de France course. Numerous times he climbed Longs Peak in Colorado, at 14,259 feet the tallest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, Brandenburg said, though on occasion his ambition overcame his endurance.
After Mr. Kassoy underwent his first round of chemotherapy in 2023, she said, he and friends hiked Colorado's Arapaho Pass to 11,906 feet before his stamina waned. He had to be helped down and was taken to an emergency room.
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Mr. Kassoy left his daily involvement in B Lab in 2022. Over the past year, he wrote a critique of OpenAI and served as a senior adviser to a holding company, started last month, called Nine Dean, whose aim is to acquire midlevel businesses and hold them for the long term, relieving the immediate pressure to maximize profits.
In addition to his wife, whom he married in 2013, his sister, and his parents, Mr. Kassoy leaves a daughter, Etta, and a son, Xavier, from his marriage to Brandenburg; and two sons, Max and Jed, from his marriage to writer and therapist Kamy Wicoff, which ended in divorce.
'The problems we face as a society, they're enormous and they can be totally overwhelming,' Mr. Kassoy said in a 2021 video. He often awoke in the middle of the night, he said, thinking, 'Climate change, we're screwed.'
What is there to do? he asked in the video. Do something, he answered.
'At a minimum, just by taking action, it gives you a sense of meaning in your life.'
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Boston Globe
14-07-2025
- Boston Globe
Andrew Kassoy, 55, dies; saw capitalism as a force for social good
Advertisement His contradictory philosophy, Mr. Kassoy continued, was that 'you're here to care, to care for your workers, your community, the planet, the other people that you do business with in your supply chain.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In 2006, Mr. Kassoy, Coen Gilbert, and Houlahan left the corporate world and jointly founded B Lab, a nonprofit network whose lofty mission is 'transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities and the planet.' To accomplish its goal, B Lab certifies companies, known as B Corps, that meet verified standards of social and environmental performance. These include pay and working conditions for employees; ethical marketing and data privacy for customers; hiring practices and charitable causes in neighborhoods where businesses are situated; non-exploitive sourcing of raw materials; and the impact of energy use on the air and water in those communities. Advertisement Among the 9,979 certified B Corps companies that employ more than 1 million people in 103 countries, according to B Lab, are Patagonia, the outdoor apparel maker; Danone Yogurt; and Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Advocacy by Mr. Kassoy and others also led to the creation over the last 15 years of so-called public benefit corporations -- required to consider the public good in their business decisions, not just the interests of shareholders as in a standard corporation -- through legislation in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Those states include Delaware, where most public companies are incorporated. While business language can be rife with jargon, Mr. Kassoy spoke plainly about wanting to 'put purpose and profit on a level playing field.' In a 2020 Q&A with the Shared Future Fund, which finances projects that address climate change, Mr. Kassoy noted that it was the 50th anniversary of an influential article by economist Milton Friedman, published in The New York Times on Sept. 13, 1970, with the headline 'The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.' That view had been baked into corporate law in Delaware and the teachings of Harvard Business School, Mr. Kassoy said, but it failed to make companies as sustainable as possible. 'I think the opportunity is to reverse all that,' he said. Many young people, he said, 'don't believe in capitalism. They feel like they don't have the same kinds of opportunities, that companies don't look at them as anything other than a resource to be exploited.' Advertisement Countering such cynicism, he said, required reimagining capitalism. To convey his message, he didn't always quote Friedman's doctrine or 'The Great Gatsby' and its portrayal of the irresponsibility of elite wealth. As a father of four, he also found incisive meaning in animated feature films and was fond of an aphorism from the 'Kung Fu Panda' movies: 'One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.' Mr. Kassoy helped start B Lab, a nonprofit network that seeks to transform "the global economy to benefit all people, communities and the planet." CALLA KESSLER/NYT Andrew Renard Kassoy was born July 8, 1969, in the La Jolla area of San Diego and grew up in Boulder, Colo., where his father, David Kassoy, is an emeritus professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado. His mother, Carol (Fuchs) Kassoy, a former music teacher, is a board member of the Colorado Music Festival. In a 2019 series in the Times about visionaries, Mr. Kassoy said that by the time he was in fifth grade he wanted to be an elected official or a policymaker. An early influence on the need for social justice and opportunity for all was his maternal grandfather, Reuben Fuchs, known as Ruby, who was then the principal at Clara Barton High School in New York City and started public-private partnerships to train vocational students. 'Ruby instilled in Andrew a view that the world and its systems could always be improved,' Mr. Kassoy's sister, Erin Falquier, a clean energy consultant, said in a text message. 'Like Ruby, Andrew saw challenges as exciting opportunities rather than barriers.' While on a grant from Stanford, he worked on his senior thesis on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where he was mentored by an elder named Basil Brave Heart. It is one of the poorest communities in the United States, and Brandenburg, Mr. Kassoy's wife, said the challenges of extreme poverty that he witnessed 'really drove home the stark inequalities in this country' and were 'eye-opening in a way previous experiences hadn't been.' Advertisement He also served an internship with David Skaggs, then a member of Congress from Colorado. When Mr. Kassoy sought to return to work for him after graduating with a degree in political science in 1991, he recalled to the Times, Skaggs's response was 'Maybe, but I think not yet.' Skaggs advised him to do something in the world, like exploring the workings of the economy. Mr. Kassoy ended up working in private equity for 16 years and realized that he could create change without being a politician. But he began to reevaluate his career path after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and, he said, ultimately found Wall Street too focused on 'how quickly you could leverage something up and sell it with little interest' in the underlying business 'or the humans involved.' There had to be a better way, he thought, of running capitalism to 'benefit society and not just a few shareholders.' He was driven in his work, in the way he cooked -- his motto, his wife said, was 'Go big or order pizza' -- and in the way he exercised. He rode a bicycle up Mont Ventoux, a famously steep climb on the Tour de France course. Numerous times he climbed Longs Peak in Colorado, at 14,259 feet the tallest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, Brandenburg said, though on occasion his ambition overcame his endurance. After Mr. Kassoy underwent his first round of chemotherapy in 2023, she said, he and friends hiked Colorado's Arapaho Pass to 11,906 feet before his stamina waned. He had to be helped down and was taken to an emergency room. Advertisement Mr. Kassoy left his daily involvement in B Lab in 2022. Over the past year, he wrote a critique of OpenAI and served as a senior adviser to a holding company, started last month, called Nine Dean, whose aim is to acquire midlevel businesses and hold them for the long term, relieving the immediate pressure to maximize profits. In addition to his wife, whom he married in 2013, his sister, and his parents, Mr. Kassoy leaves a daughter, Etta, and a son, Xavier, from his marriage to Brandenburg; and two sons, Max and Jed, from his marriage to writer and therapist Kamy Wicoff, which ended in divorce. 'The problems we face as a society, they're enormous and they can be totally overwhelming,' Mr. Kassoy said in a 2021 video. He often awoke in the middle of the night, he said, thinking, 'Climate change, we're screwed.' What is there to do? he asked in the video. Do something, he answered. 'At a minimum, just by taking action, it gives you a sense of meaning in your life.' This article originally appeared in
New York Times
12-07-2025
- New York Times
Andrew Kassoy, 55, Dies; Saw Capitalism as a Force for Social Good
Andrew Kassoy, who left a career in private equity to help start an international movement to reconsider capitalism as a force for social good and not merely for profit, died on June 22 at his home in Brooklyn. He was 55. His death came after two and a half years of treatment for metastatic prostate cancer, said his wife, Margot Brandenburg, a senior program officer at the Ford Foundation. Shortly before he died, Mr. Kassoy said in a videotaped conversation with Jay Coen Gilbert and Bart Houlahan, two business partners and longtime friends from their fraternity days at Stanford University: 'I think one of the things that makes capitalism not work as a system is, it was built on the idea of carelessness. Like, literally, the entire purpose of it was that people should build wealth for themselves and that other people didn't matter, you couldn't care about them.' His contradictory philosophy, Mr. Kassoy continued, was that 'you're here to care, to care for your workers, your community, the planet, the other people that you do business with in your supply chain.' In 2006, Mr. Kassoy, Mr. Coen Gilbert and Mr. Houlahan left the corporate world and jointly founded B Lab, a nonprofit network whose lofty mission is 'transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities and the planet.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Forbes
06-07-2025
- Forbes
Declaration, Institution, Constitution. Ideas From July 4th For Family Offices
Three Lessons from America's Founding That Every Family Office Should Apply On July 4th, 1776, a group of visionaries signed a declaration that sparked one of history's boldest experiments in self-governance. But while we often celebrate the rupture — the act of independence — we rarely reflect on what followed: the slow and deliberate construction of institutions. The frameworks that protected ideals over time. The systems that outlasted individuals. For family offices, this arc feels familiar. Most do not begin with a perfect plan. They start with an event: a sale, a succession, a shift. But the offices that endure move through three critical stages: declaration, institution, and constitution. This Independence Day, it is worth asking what family offices can learn from the founding playbook of the United States, and what it means to build something that lasts. 1. Declaration: Clarity of Vision, Not Just Control The Declaration of Independence was not a legal document. It was a statement of purpose. It set out a vision, values, and direction before any structure or operational plan had been finalised. It told the world what mattered, and why. Family offices benefit from the same clarity. Whether it comes in the form of a wealth purpose statement, an impact thesis, or a shared set of family values, a clear declaration helps align decisions before complexity takes over. This is not theoretical. Consider Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, who transferred ownership of the company to a trust and nonprofit. His decision was not just philanthropic. It was strategic. He publicly declared that 'Earth is now our only shareholder.' That one line reset expectations, guided operations, and embedded values structurally. For family offices, declarations do not need to be grand. But they do need to be intentional. Without a shared purpose, even the best-run structures can drift. 2. Institution: From Passion Project to Professional Platform The founders did not stop at a declaration. They built institutions. They delegated power, designed systems of accountability, and laid the groundwork for governance that would survive disagreement, transition, and time. Many family offices begin as informal setups: a trusted advisor, a family CFO, perhaps a loose network of investment partners. It works, until it doesn't. As the family grows, and as ambitions widen, informality becomes fragility. Institution-building is the second phase of independence. It is when the office shifts from people to processes, from instinct to systems. This includes data infrastructure, clear reporting protocols, legal clarity on roles, and governance that holds even when key individuals exit. Even the most prominent entities evolve. The Gates Foundation, for instance, has undergone significant restructuring in recent years to simplify decision-making and prepare for a future beyond the direct involvement of its founders. Its aim was not expansion, but clarity. That shift highlights the importance of institutional design, even for organisations already at scale. For families in earlier stages, this phase is less about growth and more about resilience. It is the point where the family office moves from something built for today to something built for continuity. 3. Constitution: Codifying Trust and Continuity The U.S. Constitution was drafted to protect against drift. It set boundaries, rights, and responsibilities. It offered a framework that could adapt, while still holding a central intent. Family constitutions serve a similar purpose. They are designed to clarify decision rights, succession mechanisms, and shared values across generations. At their best, they reduce ambiguity and foster alignment. Yet intention does not always lead to implementation. According to recent reporting from Crain Currency, there is a growing trend of families drafting constitutions, but not using them. They spend months defining roles, only to let those frameworks gather dust. Without rituals or review cycles, even the most thoughtful documents lose relevance. A strong family constitution is not about locking in the past. It is about creating a durable foundation for dialogue, especially across generations. It works best when treated as a living document, regularly reviewed, openly debated, and tied to decisions that actually matter. To illustrate this, in Singapore, several multi-generational families now host structured 'family council' retreats every 18 to 24 months. These are not just about reviewing investment performance or updating documents — they serve as governance rituals. The aim is to revisit shared principles and ensure that younger voices feel heard and represented. These gatherings turn legacy planning into a living process, not just a legal one. What This Looks Like in Practice Each of these phases — declaration, institution, constitution — could be deep dives in their own right. Entire books and advisory frameworks have been built around each. But even without going to that depth, there are critical signposts that help families know whether they are heading in the right direction. Consider these as simple starting points: The goal is not perfection. It is momentum in the right direction. The Freedom to Build, Intentionally Even for those outside the United States, Independence Day offers a useful metaphor. Around the world, families are relocating their offices to jurisdictions like Singapore or Dubai. This is not just about tax. It is about autonomy, control, and the freedom to build within a system that supports long-term stewardship. True independence, whether for a nation or a family office, does not come from rejecting structure. It comes from designing it. With clarity, with care, and with continuity in mind. Wealth may be inherited, but stewardship is earned.
