Ex-McDonald's CEO fights woke corporate politics

Former McDonald's CEO Ed Rensi on Wednesday said companies have "no business" being in politics and is now working to fight woke corporate politics through his new advocacy coalition, The Boardroom Initiative.

Rensi will serve as executive chairman of the group whose members include The Job Creators Network, The Free Enterprise Group, and Second Vote.

"Corporations have no business being on the right or the left because they represent everybody there and their sole job is to build equity for their investors," Rensi told Fox Business.

While Rensi does not consider himself to be politically active, Fox said he "wants to act in the best interest of shareholders who he believes are being negatively affected by progressive policies that infiltrate everyday life in corporate America."

The Boardroom Initiative is focusing on investment fund managers such as Engine No. 1 and Blackrock, which the coalition says "are slowly infiltrating American corporations by embracing woke cancel culture and prioritizing Environmental, Social and Government (ESG) scores and leveraging your 401k to do so, leaving shareholders and employees disenfranchised."

The group has also promoted articles like "Free Enterprise Project Publishes Guide to Combating Corporate Wokeness" and "Hollywood Abandons Woke Scene At the Request of the Chinese Communist Party," among others.

Rensi has a track record of success in the corporate world. During his 13 years as president of McDonald's, the company's sales more than doubled to $16 billion. He has also served as a board member of Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que and Great Wolf Resorts.

"It is not the providence of board members or executives that take shareholder money profit and spend it on social matters," Rensi said. "Corporations should not get involved in social engineering."

The Boardroom Initiative's newest effort comes from Bank of America shareholders who are requesting that the financial giant "commission a racial equity audit analyzing the Company’s impacts on civil rights and non-discrimination, and the impacts of those issues on the Company’s business." 

Bank of America has encouraged employees to be "woke at work" and told white employees to "decolonize your mind" and "cede power to people of color," Manhattan Institute's Christopher Rufo reported.