Tag Archives: Board accountability
Directors Face a Changed World
As Ira Millstein told directors on a recent NACD/Weil webinar on the Dodd-Frank Act, they must align with the owners of the company, the shareholders. He advised directors “not to make believe” or “live in a dream world” because governance power has already shifted to shareholders and it’s not going to be the way it [...]
Dodd-Frank Reflects ‘New Normal’–”Boards Are the Problem”
“We’re seeing a sea-change in the environment of shareholder empowerment,” said Holly Gregory, Weil Gotshal partner and governance expert. “The Dodd-Frank bill accelerates a fundamental change, a new normal in the balance of governance power. “ She went on to note that the eighth anniversary of Sarbanes Oxley, enacted during the aftermath of WorldCom and [...]
CEOs, Directors and Lake Wobegon
While the news is full of reports about shareholder concerns over the quality of corporate boards, it turns out that CEOs have questions too.
It’s the Lake Wobegon syndrome where 95 percent of directors think they’re doing a good job. CEOs see it differently. According to work by Heidrick & Struggles, CEOs “almost universally confide” that [...]
Directors, Your Image Problem Isn’t Going Away
The curent issue of Newsweek features an interview with John Gillespie, one of the authors of Money for Nothing: How the Failure of Corporate Boards Is Ruining American Business. The title alone is fairly daunting for directors who have served and are serving on boards. Even if the public at large doesn’t read the book, [...]
Feinberg’s Approach Offers Clues to Directors
How many professionals take on a highly visible thankless task for no pay not once but twice in the most challenging decade?
Kenneth Feinberg managed to create a program that persuaded 98 percent of the 3,000 victims’ families of 9/11 to stay out of court and instead apply to his fund while dispensing the $7 billion [...]
Smart Boards Recognize the World Has Changed
Five years ago, RiskMetrics Group, the provider of proxy advisory services, seldom heard from the directors of the boards whose governance they evaluated.
“ These days, it’s not unusual for a board member—typically the lead director or a key committee chair—to initiate the contact with RiskMetric’s research team. It’s common for a director to lead the [...]
Advocates for the Public as Well as California Teachers
When Anne Sheehan, Director of Corporate Governance for the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) speaks, companies in which the nation’s 2nd largest public pension fund invests listen.
“This is a new era,” Sheehan told the audience at the National Association of Corporate Directors. “The financial crisis of the past year has resulted in the erosion [...]
