37. Michael Hershman on co-founding Transparency International and corruption in sports

KickBack - The Global Anticorruption Podcast

We welcome Michael Hershman co-founder of Transparency International for an in-depth conversation about founding TI, populism, COV-19, FIFA, and politicization of sports. Michael’s shares his experience of being Senior Staff Investigator for the Senate Watergate Committee, how his work on Police corruption in New York inspired the movie Serpico (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070666/) and the challenges that Michael and his fellow co-founders faced when founding Transparency International, which other name Michael proposed. Listen to Michael looking back on the successes and failures of anti-corruption in the past decades. Michael takes the listener through his many stations of anti-corruption work including the famous Bofors scandal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors_scandal) and Siemens corruption scandal (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business/worldbusiness/21siemens.html). The second part of the interview deals with corruption sports, including Michael’s surprises when he served on the Independent Governance Committee for FIFA and why FIFA was reluctant to implement reforms. The interview ends with Christopher, Nils and Michael discussing the importance of athletes as role models, and how sports athletes, in particular in the NBA, are increasingly making use of their public role to demand for social justice. References: Michael’s TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOzwUq6WGCA Michael’s pick of the podcast: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/