As the founder of Theranos faces a possible prison sentence and the company collapses under allegations of outright fraud and a board that was at best negligent, Adam J. Epstein points to one director who tried to do the right thing, based on the new book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley…
Tag: corporate governance
Corporate Governance Principles – Investor Stewardship Group
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK FOR U.S. LISTED COMPANIES Principle 1: Boards are accountable to shareholders. Principle 2: Shareholders should be entitled to voting rights in proportion to their economic interest. Principle 3: Boards should be responsive to shareholders and be proactive in order to understand their perspectives. Principle 4: Boards should have a strong, independent leadership…
Investors’ Attention to Corporate Governance by Peter Iliev, Jonathan Kalodimos, Michelle Lowry
Seems like a pretty nuanced cost-benefit analysis to us. We develop a direct measure of investor scrutiny to assess the extent of governance-related research conducted by 97 mutual fund families in 3,706 companies, over a seven-year period. Our governance measure is based on the number of times each investor accesses each firm’s proxy and proxy-related…
Nell Minow: How Only Corporate Governance Can Save the World
VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow spoke to students at Sarah Lawrence College about the challenges and opportunities of corporate governance.
Time For Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg To Face Facts
Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld explains the failure of corporate governance at Facebook revealed by the Cambridge Analytica breach. We concur, and we call on the board to establish a committee to investigate further and report to Facebook users and investors about the steps they are taking to prevent further breaches. The leadership of Facebook is failing…
Fed Slaps Unusual Penalty On Wells Fargo Following ‘Widespread Consumer Abuses’ : The Two-Way : NPR
Some unusual snark in a business story as NPR cites Wells Fargo’s assets as a claim, not a fact, and some unusual oversight by the Fed in ordering replacement of directors. ‘ In a rare move, the Federal Reserve announced Friday that it is restricting Wells Fargo’s growth and demanding the replacement of four board…
Gretchen Morgenson: 20 Years of Corporate Governance
In her last column for the New York Times, Gretchen Morgenson summarizes the best and worst and most improved of the corporate governance issues she has reported on, quoting VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow: Nell Minow is a corporate governance expert and vice chairwoman at ValueEdge Advisors, a firm that guides institutional shareholders on reducing…
PWC: Climate Change of More Concern to Investors than to Corporate Directors | HuffPost
VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow interviewed PwC’s Paula Loop for the Huffington Post: A report released on October 17, 2017 from PwC finds that on some subjects there is a wide disparity between the directors who oversee corporate strategy and the investors to whom they owe the legal duties of care and loyalty. These findings…
Silicon Valley Vs. Wall Street: Can the New Long-Term Stock Exchange Disrupt Capitalism? – WSJ
Silicon Valley’s high-tech denizens complain the public stock markets are marred by a narrow focus on short-term earnings and profits.Now they are actually doing something about it, by launching a new framework for corporate governance, investing and trading called the Long-Term Stock Exchange. Backed by top Valley figures such as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and…
Why companies and CEOs treat their workers like garbage.
A new book, The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America, argues that the primary focus on shareholder value has enabled decisions that are bad for workers and consumers. This culture, [Rick] Wartzman argues, has “explicitly elevated shareholders above employees.” Looking at issues like the rising disdain for unions, the emergence…
Danone can stomach new activist investor – Breakingviews
Carol Ryan writes approvingly about a small stake by an activist investor in a previously entrenched French company: Danone can stomach a new activist investor. A stake reportedly taken by U.S. hedge fund Corvex Management in the French yoghurt maker may be small, but would bring welcome pressure on management to meet its new margin…
Snap’s Earnings Call Can’t Stop Its Nose Dive, Shares Hit New All-Time Lows
Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Do not invest in non-voting stock. We’re not saying that if this stock had a vote it would not be losing value. We are saying that if the stock had a vote, shareholders could do something about it. Snap Inc. execs did their best to spin the company’s second…
