News
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Southwest Airlines reveals legal leadership changes
Company to split top governance and legal role Governance Intelligence has released details of its 2024 Corporate Governance Awards and is now accepting nominations, which are due by July 26. The 17th Corporate Governance Awards will be presented at a gala ceremony in New York on Thursday, November 7. The awards celebrate outstanding achievements by the governance profession in areas such as hosting AGMs, compliance and ethics programs, ESG reporting, entity management, use of technology, proxy statements, investor engagement, corporate transactions, board assessments, director training and education and outstanding work by an independent director.Entries can be submitted – free of…
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Nominations open for Corporate Governance Awards 2024
Submissions due by July 26 Southwest Airlines has announced changes to its in-house legal and governance leadership, including splitting the top role. According to the company, Mark Shaw, executive vice president, chief legal & regulatory officer and corporate secretary, has decided to move into an executive adviser role, effective June 1. Given Shaw’s transition, Jason Van Eaton is being promoted from senior vice president and chief corporate affairs officer to executive vice president and chief regulatory & corporate affairs officer, also effective June 1. In his new role, Van Eaton’s duties will include overseeing legislative and regulatory policy, airline-airport relationship…
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Paramount shareholders to vote on NYC’s AI proposal
Resolution includes request for information on board oversight Investors in Paramount Global will vote at the company’s June 4 AGM on a proposal seeking disclosures around AI and board oversight of the technology. The resolution was filed by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is custodian for the city’s public pension funds. Those funds have a total of more than $271 bn in assets under management. The proposal requests that Paramount ‘prepare and publicly disclose on the company’s website a transparency report that explains [its] use of [AI] in its business operations and the board’s role in overseeing AI…
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CSRD will shape reporting by companies outside its scope, survey finds
Most companies will align with the EU’s landmark ESG regulation regardless of whether it applies to them, according to poll New research shows that the majority – 81 percent – of companies not subject to the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) intend to meet its disclosure requirements in some shape or form. The survey of more than 2,000 people working in corporate reporting, sustainability or related functions carried out by Workiva also finds that respondents almost unanimously consider meeting the demands of mandates such as the CSRD as the most pressing challenge ahead of them. Those polled by Workiva…
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The week in GRC: NBIM will continue to advocate for ESG goals and Glass Lewis urges Shell investors to oppose climate proposal
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – CNBC reported that Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) says it will continue to advocate for investments based on ESG factors despite political backlash. Analysts expect the outcome of this year’s US presidential election to determine whether the pushback against ESG investment strategies will have a deep and lasting effect. Nicolai Tangen, CEO of NBIM, said the sovereign wealth fund continued to push for the ESG agenda. ‘We think it is part of long-term investing,’ he said. ‘You really need to care [about] the impact companies have on the…
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CSRD as de facto global standard: Inside the minds of SEC influencers
Steve Soter of Workiva on adapting to the world of non-financial information, CSRD as the global standard and the importance of plain English How do you become (what we’re calling in this series of articles) an SEC ‘influencer’? Whatever those influencers’ background or current position, the thread running through this series is a passion for all things reporting. And Steve Soter, a vice president and industry principal at Workiva, certainly fits the bill. Talking about how he came to the world of SEC filings, he explains that he studied accounting and became an auditor before quickly moving into financial reporting…
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Lobbying proposal gains traction at Goldman Sachs AGM
Resolution supported by almost 40 percent of votes cast A shareholder proposal seeking insight into Goldmans Sachs’ lobbying activities garnered substantial – though not majority – support at the bank’s AGM last week. According to an SEC filing, 39.4 percent of votes cast at the April 24 meeting backed the proposal, a level of support governance professionals generally regard as significant. Essentially the same proposal attracted 35.6 percent of votes at last year’s AGM. The resolution, filed by John Chevedden and Oblate International Pastoral Investment Trust, asks that Goldman Sachs prepare a report each year disclosing: ‘Company policy and procedures…
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Disney attorney to join Sony Pictures as general counsel
Jill Ratner has also worked at 21st Century Fox Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has hired Jill Ratner as executive vice president and general counsel, effective May 28. Ratner will join Sony Pictures from The Walt Disney Company, where she has been deputy general counsel since 2019. At Disney, she has global responsibility for the company’s litigation, intellectual property (IP) and digital anti-piracy functions and leads legal support for the company’s social responsibility operations. According to an SPE announcement, her experience includes copyright, trademark, First Amendment, contract disputes, employment, antitrust, securities and class action matters. In her new role, Ratner will…
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IBM hires Vanguard general counsel as new legal chief
Anne Robinson succeeds Michelle Browdy, who is retiring IBM has hired Anne Robinson as senior vice president and chief legal officer, effective July 1. Robinson will join IBM from Vanguard, where she has been general counsel and secretary of the Vanguard funds since 2016. In that role she has led Vanguard’s global public policy, legal, compliance and investment stewardship functions. She will succeed Michelle Browdy, who earlier this year told IBM she planned to retire from her role as senior vice president for legal and regulatory affairs and general counsel, a role she took up in 2015.Robinson was previously managing…
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New push to lower 13F filing deadlines
Society for Corporate Governance, NIRI and NYSE write to the SEC calling for new rulemaking process A new effort is under way in the US market to make investment firms disclose their equity holdings in a more timely fashion. The Society for Corporate Governance, NIRI and the NYSE have jointly petitioned the SEC to reduce the deadline for 13F filings, which currently stands at 45 days after the end of each quarter. 13F filings are one of the main ways market participants, from issuers to other investors and academics, understand what buying and selling is taking place within the US…