Economy, Strategy & Finance Data Reactions

Institutional investors should always be in a position of making an informed vote, whether or not a proxy advisor can help in making them informed.

During the last three months, the Governance Center released four pieces of research that cover CEO and executive compensation practices, CEO succession practices, the Delaware bench and bar perspectives on the job description of a corporate director, and an analysis of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations.

While political control of Congress in 2019 is unknown two weeks before Election Day, what is known is the number of S&P 500 companies receiving high scores for political disclosure and accountability continues to increase. That is a major finding of the 2018 CPA-Zicklin Index.

Center for Political Accountability launched a new campaign on June 22 discussing corporate political spending. The report advises companies on maintaining public image and brand through political expenditures. The Conference Board’s Committee on Corporate Political Spending has more information on the topic, including three published reports.

This Q&A with Myron Steele discusses the job of the corporate director from his perspective as former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware. He touches on topics like the influence of Delaware law and shareholder engagement on the role of the corporate director.

Director oversight is changing as new crises like data breaches and toxic workplace problems emerge. Shareholders are demanding focused risk management from their board of directors. As a result, boards are now looking for ways to improve meaningful oversight.

Public and private businesses today face many decisions that do not arise from, and have consequences far beyond, solely financial performance. Rather, these decisions are primarily driven by, and implicate, important social, cultural and political concerns. They include harassment, pay equity and other issues raised by the #MeToo movement.

The elimination of perpetual dual class shares in IPOs is a solution without a real problem to solve. Of the 19 companies that utilized dual class shares in their IPOs in 2015 perhaps 50 percent used a perpetual structure.

Despite the rise of corporate sustainability, few CEOs discuss these initiatives with shareholders. But that is changing. Companies and shareholders are beginning to use the term Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) to represent the more focused area of the overlap between financials and environmental/social issues, resulting in risk mitigation.