Lawyer, educator U.S diplomat
USA, Boston Massachusetts
Born 29 January 1895
Died 27 February 1971 aged 76
Spouse: Dr Beatrice Bishop
Adolf Berle went to the Paris Peace Conference as part of the American delegation and was disappointed in what he saw there. On returning he became a lawyer in New York. In 1927 he became a lecturer at Columbia Law school, and it was during this time the question of what role a government should play when it comes to economic issues absorbed him. Berle’s musing on this question surmounted in the book he co-authored with the economist Gardiner Means, “The Modern Corporation and Private Property” the book looks at how companies are no longer run by their owners but rather by managers this means that investors in the company, shareholders, clients, and CEOs are all separate. Managers could control and change the company without the owners agreeing to it. At the time of publishing in 1932 around 200 companies ran the economy of the United States of America. The business model of the past few hundred years changed thanks to Adolf Berle.
In 1935 Beatrice’s father Cortlandt Field Bishop died and refused to see her on his deathbed, his will and testimony left her nothing to inherit this did not stop her from having an influential life and going on to become a doctor and educator. After Adolf’s involvement in politics and his huge influence from his book which shaped corporate governance, he lost favour. In 1938 Adolf was made the secretary of state with the aim to work with Latin America. In 1944 he was relieved of that duty and from 1945 to 45 he served as the ambassador to Brazil. After WWII, he chaired the century fund for two decades which was a non-profit institution which researched on topics of public policy.
Berle was hoping to change the system of the economy for years but it became a reality when Roosevelt was president, Berle’s economic ideas were what helped to make a comeback from the Great depression, banks were no longer allowed to play with clients money and large corporations could not make loans as they pleased. Belre restored trust in banks because of these reforms.
Throughout his career Adolf published over 20 books and numerous articles much of this was fueled with tobacco which was his demise, his wife as a doctor understood the x-rays too well and knew his death was coming, he died at the age of 76.
https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/richman/sites/richman/files/Nicholas%20Lemann%20_%20Berle%20%2B%20Political%20Economy%20_%202.pdf
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mizruchi/tsweb.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/14/obituaries/beatrice-berle-90-a-doctor-teacher-and-medical-writer.html -
http://muse.jhu.edu/article/178433/pdf