Who actually runs the companies that run the world — and how would you even know?
In this episode of TBLI Radical Truth, we sit down with Matt Moscardi, co-founder of Free Float — the platform putting people back into capital markets. After a decade at MSCI helping build the ESG ratings model used by the world's largest institutional investors, Matt concluded that conventional ESG was measuring the wrong thing. Companies don't make decisions. People do.
Free Float's radical truth: investing isn't a "what" — it is a "who."
In this episode:
- Why conventional ESG ratings miss the most important variable in corporate performance: the people making the decisions
- How Free Float built a database of over 250,000 directors globally to measure who holds real power in boardrooms
- Why boardroom transparency matters more than ever — and what most investors are dangerously overlooking
- The concept of "board sabermetrics" — applying data analytics to corporate governance the way sports analytics changed professional sport
- How shareholder influence, board dynamics, and hidden power structures shape every decision that affects us all
- Why the anti-ESG backlash is a distraction from the real governance failures happening in plain sight
- What a genuinely accountable, high-performing board actually looks like — and why most don't come close
The key insight: The governance meltdowns of the financial crisis — and every scandal since — were caused by people, not processes. Until investors understand who runs companies, not just what they report, ESG will never deliver what it promises.
⏱️ Episode Guide:
- 0:00 — Who actually runs the companies that run the world?
- 0:X:XX — Why ESG is measuring the wrong thing
- 0:X:XX — Board sabermetrics: putting people back in capital markets
- 0:X:XX — The Free Float database: 250,000 directors and counting
- 0:X:XX — Hidden power structures: monarchies, oligarchies, and democracies in the boardroom
- 0:X:XX — What the anti-ESG backlash is really about
- 0:X:XX — What genuinely accountable governance looks like
👤 About Matt MoscardiAfter a decade measuring how companies perform on environmental, social, and governance risks at MSCI, Matt co-founded Free Float to measure how the people who run companies perform — rather than the companies themselves. Free Float Analytics provides data on over 250,000 directors globally, with performance attribution across financial and ESG factors, to facilitate proxy voting, engagement, board placement, and allocation strategies. Free Float LLC At MSCI, Matt helped develop the ESG Ratings model used by the world's largest institutional investors, chaired the MSCI ESG Research Editorial Committee, and wrote over 100 investor papers and industry reports. Free Float LLC Prior to MSCI, he worked at Ceres, engaging directly with US pension funds and asset managers overseeing over $10 trillion in assets, and previously founded a hedge fund with a sustainability and resource scarcity focus. Free Float LLC He is a graduate of Brown University and co-hosts the Business Pants podcast, making corporate governance accessible — and occasionally hilarious — for investors and the investor-curious alike.
Whether you are an institutional investor, a corporate governance professional, a sustainability leader, or simply someone who wants to understand who really pulls the strings in global capitalism — this episode is essential listening.
Note: Please update timestamps marked 0:X:XX once confirmed.
ABOUT TBLI RADICAL TRUTHReal experience. Real results. No greenwashing. TBLI Group is the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.
🌐 tbligroup.com
#CorporateGovernance #ESG #MattMoscardi #FreeFloat #BoardDiversity #ImpactInvesting #Transparency #Accountability #TBLI #RadicalTruth #SustainableFinance #ShareholderActivism #BoardSabermetrics #InstitutionalInvestors #CorporateResponsibility