Sometimes CEOs forget exactly what the underlying principles of capitalism are. Here a CEO lashes out at proxy advisors and shareholders who object to excessive pay. That “opportunity to reflect” that led to “more appropriate pay?” That opportunity was the direct result of a 40 percent vote against. If customers do not like a product,…
Category: international corporate governance
Telstra considers executive pay overhaul after investors’ first strike against board | Australia news | The Guardian
We are very intrigued by the provision that a two-times vote against CEO pay has meaningful consequences in Australia. And needless to say, not impressed with the “everyone does it” excuse. Telstra is considering an overhaul of how it calculates executive bonuses after suffering a first strike from shareholders opposed to its remuneration report.More than…
Unilever U-turn shows how angry shareholders are securing change | Financial Times
It took just a few days after Unilever made public its proposal to move its headquarters to the Netherlands for the company to be faced with its first obstacle.Iain Richards, head of responsible investment at Columbia Threadneedle and one of the consumer goods company’s biggest shareholders, lambasted Unilever in a rare public statement in March,…
Gender quotas make an impact in the boardroom
Ceramics manufacturer Villeroy & Boch has been around since 1748, but it recently faced a very contemporary problem. The company was forced to leave a position on its supervisory board vacant for several months, because it was unable to find a qualified female candidate. Franziska Giffey, Germany’s minister of family affairs, said Villeroy & Boch’s…
New crackdown on reckless directors – GOV.UK
New sanctions are available in the UK for directors who are serial offenders. While the vast majority of UK companies are run responsibly, there are a minority of directors who deliberately dodge debts by dissolving companies then starting up a near identical business, with a new name. The practice is known as ‘phoenixing’ or ‘bumping…
What Adam Smith Knew About Trade Wars – WSJ
Member of Parliament Jesse Norman, one of the global leading lights on issues of corporate governance and economic policy, has a new book coming out next month about Adam Smith, and it was excerpted in the Wall Street Journal. What matters for [Adam] Smith isn’t the rhetoric of “free markets” but the reality of effective…
Don’t miss out on the investor revolution taking big firms like Royal Mail and Persimmon to task | This is Money
Revolts by shareholders over company pay and board appointments seem to have become more prevalent this year. Last month Royal Mail experienced the second biggest shareholder uprising in modern times, when 70 per cent rejected the pay package of new boss Rico Back. It was an embarrassing revolt that sent the postal-service firm back to…
Business world reacts to new Corporate Governance Code | ICAEW Economia
More on the new UK governance code: While the majority of business groups, accountancy firms and think tanks welcomed the reforms, some said they were not the “shake-up of corporate Britain” the government has previously promised.Roger Barker, head of corporate governance at the Institute of Directors, welcomed the Code, particularly its “engagement with a wider…
‘Chairman’ retired from UK boardroom code – Financial News
The term ‘chairman’ has been dropped from the UK Corporate Governance Code for the first time in 26 years and replaced with ‘chair’ in a landmark move for equality in the workplace.The watershed change appears in the 2018 edition of the influential guidelines, published today, and is part of a conscious decision to retire the…
Foreign investors see value in Japan Inc’s good governance – Nikkei Asian Review
As Japanese companies work to improve corporate governance, they are attracting more foreign investors looking to cash in on the changed business climate.Statistics released by the Tokyo Stock Exchange and other Japanese bourses show that the ratio of foreign ownership in the country’s stocks remained almost unchanged in the fiscal year through March 2018 from a…
