When Alastair Ross Goobey tells you that every bear market has a silver lining, you could be forgiven for thinking him sanctimonious.
But the former chief executive of Hermes Pension Management has seen so many companies destroy shareholder value - whether the Mirror Group, Polly Peck or WorldCom - that he does not care much what people think of him.
"I think we needed some examples of bad governance to force people to change," he says. "This is the first post-war governance bear market and it has created a change in the view - particularly in the US where most of the problems have happened - that their system is always superior."
In managing money as a career Ross Goobey followed his father, George Ross Goobey, a fund manager in the 1950s and '60s. Ross Goobey junior began as a graduate trainee at Kleinwort Benson before moving to Courtaulds pension fund and then James Capel.