One of the most thoughtful and knowledgable observers of American corporate governance, Delaware Chief Justice Leo Strine, Jr., believes that companies and our economy will only be robust and vibrant if investors and boards make sure to align the incentives of top executives with ESG goals. He proposes better disclosure and giving employees more power…
Category: corporate governance
WeWork IPO Struggles with Valuation and Governance Concerns
Since We filed the prospectus for its initial public offering last month, it has been besieged with criticism over its governance, business model and ability to turn a profit. It is now expecting an IPO valuation as low as a third of the $47 billion sticker price it garnered in a January funding round—a drop…
Nell Minow on Bloomberg’s Law X.0 Podcast
VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow appears in the first episode of Law X.0, the new podcast from Bloomberg Lsw, hosted by Megan McEvoy and Dori Goldstein.
More Reactions to the Business Roundtable’s Stakeholder Statement
More reactions: From the always-thoughtful and insightful Doug Chia: Like the Commonsense Governance Principles (1.0 and 2.0), it’s not about what is being said, which we all know is nothing new (e.g., the J&J Credo was written in the 1943; my most recent boss at The Conference Board, Steve Odland, often says “‘CEO’ stands for…
The Trust Crisis
Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta write about trust as an essential element of a company’s brand and risk management strategy, with Boeing, Volkswagen, and Facebook as examples of corporations that are failing to maintain the trust of customers, regulators, and investors. Trust, as defined by organizational scholars, is our willingness to be vulnerable to…
Nasdaq Launches Center for Corporate Governance, First Report Highlights Focus on Stakeholders Beyond Shareholders
We are very skeptical of this new initiative — to have its very first report grounded in the work of the ultimate defender of corporate insiders but couched in the language of stakeholders looks like just another sneaky entrenchment ploy. We hope that the emphasis on sustainability is sincere, but we need to be persuaded….
FTC’s $5 Billion Fine Alone Won’t Get Facebook Out of Crosshairs – WSJ
“Five billion is literally the cost of doing business,” said Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which has long pushed for greater regulatory scrutiny of Facebook’s privacy practices.“If they get some serious new privacy obligations, that would be interesting. If they got governance reform, that would be interesting. What would not be…
Silicon Valley eyes plan to reward long term shareholders | Financial Times
A new stock exchange wants to encourage long-term investors with long-term investment horizons by giving them increased voting power as they continue to hold the stock. We saw how this can go off the rails back in the 1980’s when a company rescinded the additional voting power just before Gamco’s shares were about to qualify….
Applying Commonsense Principles 2.0 | Ethical Boardroom
An update on the Commonsense Principles for corporate governance, first published in 2017: The Commonsense Principles 2.0 built on the strong foundation of the 2016 Principles to reflect the evolving conversation and drive forward a more developed understanding of, and agreement on, the key tenants of corporate governance that support long-term value for all shareholders. Notably,…
