Over the past sixty years, as more and more people in the US have begun to participate in the capital market through retirement plans, mutual funds, ETFs and other pooled investment vehicles, institutional investors have grown from bit players in the markets, owning about 5% of US equities prior to 1945, to being major players today, owning greater than 67% of US equities. This growth in the proportion of assets managed by institutional investors has also been accompanied by a dramatic growth over the same period in the market capitalization of US listed companies.  As a result, institutional investors now own a larger percentage of a much larger market. This massive increase in US equity ownership by institutional investors brings with it great proxy voting power as well.    Given their outsized level of ownership, institutional investors are now faced with new pressures to exercise a real and abiding role in corporate governance.