With all of the adjustments companies and their workforces have had to make during the pandemic, more employees feel pressured to cut corners and bend the rules. That’s according to the 2021 Global Business Ethics Survey Report from the Ethics & Compliance Initiative, which found that employee pressure to compromise ethical standards has reached the…
Category: boards
Agenda – Boards Boast New Directors’ ESG Expertise
“This year there has been an explosion in terms of formal and informal discussions around the boardroom and ESG,” says Scott Atkinson, partner at Heidrick & Struggles and cohead of its sustainability office. “It [has] definitely been a year where we have been sought out to talk about who might be the additional board member…
Agenda – What’s Up, Doc? The Number of M.D.s on Boards
The number of physicians on boards shot up in 2020. Some recruiters say this is part of a trend that has been on the rise for the past decade or longer, while others link the jump to the pandemic. In 2020, there were 578 medical doctors on Russell 3000 boards, up from 484 in 2019…
Agenda – Boards Sharpen Tools to Circumvent ‘Ugly’ Clawback Process
In an attempt to sharpen the tools available to boards in the wake of a scandal, companies are amending otherwise standard clawback provisions or looking beyond clawbacks altogether. Indeed, following the MeToo movement, policies were expanded to include for-cause termination, misconduct and, in rare cases, sexual misconduct, as Agenda has reported. That trend has continued,…
Climate Governance Initiative | World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum has developed a set of Climate Governance Principles for boards of directors, with a view to enabling non-executive directors (NEDs)to gain climate awareness and skills, embed climate considerations into board decision-making, and understand and act upon the risks and opportunities that the climate emergency poses to the long-term resilience and business…
Sonic Automotive CEO Smith Charged With Assault, Board Structure Draws Criticism – Bloomberg
VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow is quoted in this story about a CEO charged with criminal assault and his insider-stacked board’s insistence that it doesn’t matter. Barely 24 hours after his release, Sonic’s board — more than a quarter of which is made up of Smith family members, including the CEO’s father and 93-year-old founder O….
Celebrities Land in the Boardroom. Here’s How Companies Make It Work. – WSJ
Pop star Ciara Wilson’s meteoric career has traveled a familiar arc—first a string of hits, then a fragrance brand and a fashion line. Now the Grammy-winning singer is taking on a role that has become increasingly popular among entrepreneurial-minded celebrities: corporate director. Announced Thursday, Ms. Wilson’s appointment to the board of Seattle marketing-tech company Amperity…
Agenda – ISS to Score Boards on Information Security Oversight
According to an update announced this morning to ISS ESG screening tool Governance QualityScore, outcomes will now include scoring on 17 newly introduced factors as part of the calculation for overall portfolio company governance in investor reports. This is the largest update to ISS’s methodology used to assess corporate governance caliber in recent years. The…
Agenda – Wells Fargo Board Uses Pandemic as Excuse to Boost Pay
Why why why why should the pandemic be a reason to waive performance goals? Performance goals are supposed to be based on performance standards as set ahead of time. The reason for failing to meet them should not matter. Wells Fargo board of directors: Steven D. Black , Co-CEO, Bregal Investments, Inc. Mark A. Chancy , Retired…
U.S. Corporate Boards Suffer from Inadequate Expertise in Financially Material ESG Matters
A new study by Professor Tensie Whelan finds that fewer than one percent of US boards of directors include members with competence in climate change, cybersecurity, and other ESG concerns. Corporate sustainability and ESG investing are increasingly front and center for U.S. companies as issues such as climate change, health care and inequity have more…
