The president of LeapFrog Investments says that large companies are crucial for solving some of the world’s biggest problems.

Question: How do you regulate multinational corporations?

Andrew Kuper: I don’t believe profit is bad, I believe profit is good but the invisible hand of the market has to be in a thick glove or regulation. And that glove has to be appropriate, it has to be flexible, but it, nonetheless, has to be in place.

And I often think that by excluding corporations, all you do is encourage them to undermine attack going around the system, I’m a believer that it’s better them in the system, have a transparent and regulate them and have other actors there like nonprofits that can disclose what’s going on like states that are engaged in regulation than to have them outside.

And this is particularly true in the world we live in because there was a study that showed that of the 100 most powerful economic entities, 51 are corporations, 49 are states. So people are living in a dream world, I’m not sure if it’s ever true but it’s certainly not true now, that states have just simply the power to go out, regulate and control multinational corporations simply. We’re going to have to accept that this is a more complex world and that… how you regulate and manage corporations is by having multiple stakeholders and having them at the table.

Recorded on: May 1, 2009