The Board of Prudential  has repeated its strong corporate governance practice in filing its 2011 Proxy today. “As we did last year,” says Peggy Foran, Chief Governance Officers, VP and Corporate Secretary, the proxy begins with a three-page letter from the Board to shareholders.  As we also did last year, we tried our best to “plain  english” the proxy for easier reading for shareholders.”
In addition, Prudential added a two-page summary to highlight business performance and compensation decisions. They incorporated suggestions from last year by including a chart on director experience and skills that the Governance Committee uses every year to evaluate the Board and recruit new board members.
At a time when so many boards are reluctant to engage with shareholders, Prudential is creating a template for best practices. As Peggy says, “Finding effective and innovative ways to communicate with shareholders is becoming increasingly vital. Shareholders need to be engaged.  I see the future as engagement and communication.”
Congratulations Prudential.  Thank you Peggy Foran for your leadership.