Richard D. Foley

Richard Foley is a retired conductor for the Southern Pacific Railroad and was a career-long member of the United Transportation Union (UTU).  He served in the United States Navy from 1967 until 1972.  He also served as the Chapter Chair for the United Shareholder's Association (USA) for Tucson and Southern Arizona.

Richard was a founder and Chairman of the American Employees Stock Ownership Association (AESOA).  He led the team that worked for employee ownership of the Southern Pacific Railroad.  AESOA provided many public training and assistance programs in the education and exercise of stock ownership rights.  His shareholder proposal victory in 1988 was the first in the history of corporate America.  That record-breaking victory charted a major course change in corporate governance that has spread around the world.  His expert testimony before Congress, the work of USA, AESOA and others brought many positive changes in federal securities law and legislation.

Recently, Richard has been an advocate of shareowners at the Alaska Air Group, Inc., where he helped organize and ran in a proxy contest for a director seat in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. He has also assisted shareholders at Mesa Air Group, Inc.

Richard is also co-founder and Chairman of the Ownership Union (OU®).  The Ownership Union is a registered U.S. federal labor union started in 2002.

Richard participated in a special ambassador program for People to People and traveled to England, Germany, and Poland meeting with leaders in government, unions, and academics.  He is the first foreign member of the Polish Employee Ownership Union.  He is also a member of the Capital Ownership Group Virtual Think Tank hosted by Kent State University. He is a member of the Center for Social and Economic Justice.

Richard currently serves as the US Director of Marketing for the Institute of Integrated Rural Development (IIRD) which is building thousands of employee-owned enterprises among the poorest citizens of Bangladesh. He is also currently a director of the Patient Advocacy Foundation in Tucson, Arizona.

Richard is a committee member for the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 214. He lives in Tucson, Arizona with his family and is a member of the Catalina Foothills Church, PCA.

Email can be sent to Richard Foley at: richardfoley@ourunion.org