![Share](/assets/images/Website-Icons-Share.jpg)
Corporate Governance Briefs
2018
-
On Governance: SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson and Perpetual Dual Class Shares
April 10 | Bernard Sharfman, Associate Fellow, R Street Institute | Comments (0)The elimination of perpetual dual class shares in IPOs is a solution without a real problem to solve. Of the 19 companies that utilized dual class shares in their IPOs in 2015 perhaps 50 percent used a perpetual structure.
-
On Governance: Proxy Proposals on Charitable Contributions Are Rare, but Will We See More?
April 02 | Jeff Hoffman, Institute Leader, Corporate Citizenship & Philanthropy, ESG Center, The Conference Board | Comments (0)Socially responsible investors have become a bigger part of a company’s ownership. Large funds, such as Vanguard, BlackRock, pension funds and others are exerting their influence for better ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) performance. Various nonprofits are also flexing their muscles. Will the increased scrutiny lead to more proposals on charitable contributions?
-
On Governance: Setting the Stage for Sustainability
March 29 | Sophia Mendelsohn, Head of Sustainability, JetBlue Airways | Comments (0)Despite the rise of corporate sustainability, few CEOs discuss these initiatives with shareholders. But that is changing. Companies and shareholders are beginning to use the term Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) to represent the more focused area of the overlap between financials and environmental/social issues, resulting in risk mitigation.
-
On Governance: Are virtual-only annual meetings really what shareholders want?
March 26 | Gary Larkin, Former Research Associate, Corporate Leadership, The Conference Board | Comments (0)In today’s remote business world, video conference calls and internal business Skype networks have become as common as landline phones in American corporate offices. But, does having such technology mean corporate management and boards should replace in-person annual shareholder meetings with virtual ones? Or should hybrid (in-person/virtual) meetings be adopted?
-
On Governance: How Will Blockchain Technology Change Organizational Governance?
March 21 | Lewis Cohen, Partner, Hogan Lovells | Soraya Ghebleh, Law clerk, Hogan Lovells | Comments (2)Many of the corporate board monitoring costs can be drastically reduced, if not eliminated, by using blockchain to establish trust between directors and shareholders.
-
New Research from the Governance Center
February 28 | | Comments (0)Over the first two months of 2018, The Governance Center has released three pieces of research that cover the corporate secretaries’ perspective on the corporate director job, the “New Paradigm” corporate governance framework for directors and investors, and the impact of excessive director compensation.
-
On Governance: For Directors, What Needs to be Improved in 2018 to Make Progress?
February 27 | Tim Leech, Managing Director, Global Services, Risk Oversight Inc. | Comments (1)What’s driving board members to conclude that these are their top improvement areas for 2018? If directors have concluded they must improve on these dimensions, it follows that their boards haven’t been doing a good enough job to meet today’s expectations.
-
Q&A with Robert Bostrom: A General Counsel Shares Lessons Learned from Crises
February 21 | Robert E. Bostrom | Comments (0)Currently senior vice president, corporate secretary, and general counsel of Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Robert Bostrom has spent the past three decades working in the corporate legal field. As part of The Conference Board board member job description series, he shares his perspective on the corporate director's job.
-
On Governance: Seven Questions Board Members Should Ask About Insider Threat Risk
February 14 | Ryan Stolte, Co-founder, CTO, Bay Dynamics | Comments (0)Insider threats are the unwelcomed gift that keeps on giving. A recent report by the analyst firm Forrester revealed that insiders are responsible for more than half of companies’ data breaches. Companies today more so than ever before need insider threat programs, which involve a combination of people, processes and technologies. So where does the board fit in?