Over a 40-year career, Pound has worked to solve complex challenges involving leadership, vision and value through the levers of governance. In ten years on the Harvard University faculty, he helped to lead the movement for more effective public company governance, proposing a new, more collaborative model, based on deeper board involvement and constructive shareholder engagement, that he termed, in a Harvard Business Review article, "The Governed Corporation." Since then his vision has largely come to be adopted at major public companies. Subsequently, he founded Integrity Brands to pursue that model in practice, investing and working with leaders and boards at public companies to navigate challenges and find new pathways to unlock value. He has served as a board leader and member, formal advisor, informal coach, and leadership team member. His focus has been on consumer-facing brands, reflecting his own passion for the art and science dynamics and challenges driving success in these businesses.
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Pound eared an A.B. in Political Economy from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Economics fromYale. In ten years on the Harvard faculty and two years at the Securities and Exchange Commission, he advocated for stronger, more engaged, more collaborative boards, and helped to develop and test new forms of constructive shareholder engagement at public companies. His work helped to lead the development of modern activist public equity investing. He worked with some of the largest and most visible American corporations to resolve controversies over valuation and mediate investor challenges, including, e.g. Chrysler, Kodak, and KMart. He worked with leading investment organizations and helped the Bass Family found the first $1B fund for activist investing in the US. He published in many scholarly and popular journals, including The Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Law and Economics, The Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, and spoke internationally at venues including The World Economic Forum on governance reform.
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In 1997, Pound founded Integrity Brands, to take investment positions in undervalued publicly-traded consumer facing companies and work in partnership with leaders and boards to create value. Integrity has invested in, and helped to lead, oversee and advise on turnarounds and repositionings at over 20 public brands and retailers. Pound has helped rebuild and evolve visions, create new strategies, realign operating models, incubate new ventures, triage unsuccessful strategies and assets, plan distressed and growth financings, and oversee sales and restructurings. He has recruited new leaders, counselled and supported leadership teams, evolved board membership and operation, and overseen founder, leadership, and ownership transitions. Examples include Gymboree, Cost Plus World Market, RedEnvelope, Spy Optic, Kirkland's, Christopher & Banks, United Retail Group, Van's, and AT Cross. ​Pound has served as CEO at two public companies; Board Chair at three; Executive Chair at two; Lead Outside Director at one; and as a board member at five. He has also served on multiple private company and nonprofit boards.
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From 2021-2026 Pound has been affiliated with the University of Arizona, advising on program development and teaching in the Eller College of Management. He is working on a new venture aimed at promoting shelter dogs and dog rescue. His enduring passion remains helping leaders navigate ideas, visions, and tactics through the often-fraught pathways of institutional governance, and helping boards and shareholders act as collaborative (rather than combative) partners to leaders and teams.
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