Corporate governance - Vigil

Since 2004, the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (CCGG) has prepared best practices documents for reporting issuers. These documents, including this “2016 Best Practices for Proxy Circular Disclosure” publication, provide examples of excellent disclosure by Canadian issuers in the area of corporate governance and executive compensation.

Proxy access adoption, board leadership, and gender diversity remained top of mind for corporate boards, driven by continued pressure from shareholders, according to Shearman & Sterling’s 14th annual “Corporate Governance & Executive Compensation Survey.”

A number of leading asset managers have made a commitment to back a campaign to vote against board appointments at companies that do not have enough women executives. 

As we enter the homestretch of the presidential election and the quadrennial bewilderment at the vagaries of the Electoral College system, it is an opportune moment to highlight that the voting standards for corporate shareholder approvals in the United States can be similarly confounding. The simple question of whether shareholder approval was obtained or a director elected is in fact subject to overlapping provisions of state law and the company’s organizational documents (and occasionally Federal law and stock exchange rules) that can be confusing and lead to mistakes.

According to a new report by The Conference Board, the rate of succession of older CEOs of large U.S. public companies slowed significantly in 2015, bringing to a halt a generational shift in business leadership that had been observed since the financial crisis.

CalSTRS is searching for ESG Focused PE Managers. There are up to six new ESG manager spots available for consideration. Deadline October 28, 2016.

According to a new report by The Conference Board, the rate of succession of older CEOs of large U.S. public companies slowed significantly in 2015, bringing to a halt a generational shift in business leadership that had been observed since the financial crisis. The report, CEO Succession Practices: 2016 Edition, annually documents and analyzes succession events of chief executives of S&P 500 companies. In 2015, there were 56 cases of S&P companies that underwent a CEO turnover.

Minutes are your first and best defense: Minutes prove that a meeting took place, who attended, what was discussed and what was decided. If it ever comes down to a courtroom, the other side has to prove the minutes are not correct. If it can’t prove the minutes are wrong ...

Most existing work in the fields of corporate governance and investor protection assumes that corporate managers (and bankers, analysts, brokers and the like) are smart—and selfish—utility maximizers, while many investors are not. That follows naturally from the assumption that the former got to where they are via success in competitive crucibles that reward rationality, and survive and thrive by continuing their savvy ways.

Our article, published in the Journal of Finance and entitled It Pays to Set the Menu: Mutual Fund Investment Options in 401(k) Plans, takes a first step to investigate this issue. We focus on the conflicting incentives mutual fund families face as service providers of 401(k) plans. While these families work with plan sponsors to create menus that serve the interests of participants, they also have an interest in promoting their own proprietary funds.