Peter C. Clapman, reformer who helped change the way corporations do business, died of complications of covid-19 Fredrick Kunkle Peter C. Clapman helped changed the way American corporations do business, and he did it using the corporate equivalent of the ballot box. Clapman, as senior vice president and chief investment counsel at retirement and investment firm TIAA, became instrumental in using the voting power of institutional investors to push for ethical changes in corporate governance, said John H. Biggs, the company’s former chair and chief executive. Beginning in the 1980s, Clapman’s campaigns helped redistribute power from the executive suites to every company’s rightful owners — its shareholders. He also put pressure on companies to diversify their corporate boards by adding more women and people of color and to develop more environmentally friendly and ethical investment tools.