지난 금요일과 토요일 양일에 걸쳐 2023년 글로벌 지배구조 콜로퀴엄(Global Corporate Governance Colloquium: GCGC) 학술회의가 서울대 로스쿨에서 개최되었다. 금년에도 미국, 영국, 독일, 일본, 싱가폴 등 여러 선진국에서 지배구조를 연구하는 저명 법학자와 경영학자들이 다수 참석하여 성공적으로 마무리되었다. 나는 회의의 준비위원장인 송옥렬 교수의 요청으로 금요일 만찬에서 이른바 디너스피치란 것을 하게 되었다. 회의에는 국내 연구자들도 일부 참석하긴 했지만 참석자 수를 엄격히 제한하는 GCGC의 방침상 콜로퀴엄을 주관하는 ECGI와 관련있는 학자들을 제외하면 국내 학자들은 거의 초청할 수 없었다. 다행히 회의장에서의 발표와 토론을 담은 동영상은 나중에 GCGC의 웹사이트에 업로드될 예정이므로 관심있는 분들은 그곳을 찾아보면 될 것이다. 다만 내 디너스피치는 학술적인 것과는 거리가 먼 환영사的 성격을 띤 것이라 업로드 대상은 아니다. 그러나 비록 내 주관적 인상에 치우친 가십성 회고에 불과한 것이긴 하지만 젊은 연구자에게는 다소 도움 될만한 대목도 있을 것 같다는 생각에 쑥스러움을 무릅쓰고 이곳에 공개하기로 한다.
GCGC dinner speech by Kon Sik Kim (2023.6.16)
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Korea, welcome to Seoul, and a warm welcome to Seoul National University!
A few days ago, Prof. Song, our conference chair, asked me to say a few words before we start dinner, A few words! Well, I am afraid he made a grave miscalculation. Despite his decades-long experience in academia, it seems he failed to realize the potential peril of giving a microphone to an old, retired professor. You know, although retired, on corporate governance, I am still capable of boring you to death with an endless speech. However, after a full day of intensive discussion, I suspect that not many of you are eager for another lecture on the subject. So, for those of you who are entirely exhausted, I have generously selected an alternative topic for this evening. A topic that is more fitting for this particular occasion, and still related, if marginally, to corporate governance. Namely, the significance of the conference dinner.
But rest assured, folks, I will not delve into analyzing the correlation between the quality of conference dinner and the quality of academic discussion. Instead, I will take a more human approach, drawing upon my personal experiences within the global corporate governance community.
It all began with my casual encounter with Hideki Kanda, whom I first met thirty years ago during my visit to the University of Tokyo. Although we barely knew each other at that time, he graciously invited me to join a small group of corporate law scholars who were interested in comparative corporate governance. I had the privilege of attending two exclusive meetings held in Europe during the late 90s. The other members of the group were all well established and renowned figures in the field. Their names included, alphabetically, Theo Baums, Frank Easterbrook, Ron Gilson, Jeff Gordon, Henry Hansmann, Gerard Hertig, Jonathan Macey, Mark Roe, and, last but not least, Roberta Romano. It’s too bad that none of them could make it to this conference. Their total absence reminds me of the famous farewell address by General Douglas MacArthur, who is still widely respected as a war hero in Korea as well. At the end of his farewell address to the U.S. Congress in 1951, MacArthur cited the refrain of an old barrack ballad, I quote, “old soldiers never die; they just fade away.” Many years later, modifying this phrase, Richard Nixon said, “old politicians usually die, but they never fade away.” As a corporate governance scholar, I would paraphrase it this way: “Old corporate governance scholars never die, but they just stop coming to conferences.”
Going back to the meetings, I was the youngest member and the sole representative from East Asia besides Hideki. And I was familiar with their names, but had yet to meet them in person.
They put me in a luxurious five-star hotel in downtown Paris, but I could not sleep well before the conference. It was hard to dispel the nagging thought that I might be the least qualified person in the group. That night, I even had a kind of nightmare. A nightmare of being grilled by a formidable woman who, in my dream, took the form of Romano.
Once the conference started next morning, I finally had the opportunity to match these renowned names with their real faces. As far as the substance of the discussion is concerned, I must confess that I cannot recall a single detail. So, fortunately, I cannot even recall the foolish remarks that I must have made during the deliberations. Nevertheless, I do remember a couple of things. My first surprise was that Romano was a petite lady, far from the intimidating figure in my dream. And it turned out that she was kind-hearted, although she spoke so fast, like a machine gun, that I had hard time following her presentation.
Just one more episode from those days. During the meeting, a heated debate erupted between Romano and Easterbrook. After Romano’s presentation, Easterbrook offered a critical comment, to which Romano instantly retorted. The exchange of critiques continued for what felt like several minutes at least. Easterbrook seemed to relish the opportunity to be as sarcastic as possible. The atmosphere became increasingly uncomfortable for me, a junior scholar from a civilized country, who was not accustomed to such brutal academic debates. During the break, I was again pleasantly surprised. These two adversaries were enjoying a friendly chat with each other, both with a smile.
For me, the highlight of these meetings was definitely the dinner that followed each conference. It was during these relaxed moments that I had the chance to appreciate their human side. I was lucky to develop a lifelong friendship with some of them. Through these friendships, I have learned a lot, both as an academic and as a human being. Ron Gilson, for instance, told me about the existence of SSRN and explained the concept of “rational reticence” of mutual fund managers through a tale of two trekkers encountering a grizzly bear in the mountain. Since then, I have never failed to tell this story in my corporate governance class, and the students loved it always.
Now is the moment to wrap up my profound speech and to fade away from this podium. What are the takeaways from my talk? First of all, twenty-five years later, you may end up remembering very little about the substance of the conference. On the other hand, the dinners might turn out to affect your life more significantly. My dear colleagues, just matching names with faces is not enough. It is during these dinners that you truly appreciate the human side behind those famous names. If you are lucky, a casual encounter during dinner might even lead to the development of lifelong relationships. I shall stop here and encourage you to start developing such relationships. Enjoy the evening. You certainly deserve it. Thank you.