News
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Deere & Company names successor legal leader
Kellye Walker joining from Eastman Chemical Company Deere & Company, also known as John Deere, has hired Kellye Walker as senior vice president, chief legal officer (CLO) and head of worldwide public affairs, effective April 29. Walker will succeed Mary Jones, who has announced her intention to retire later this year, as the company’s general counsel. She will be responsible for the company’s global law and patent departments and will oversee its public affairs and environmental, health and safety functions. According to her LinkedIn profile, Jones has been with Deere & Company for almost 27 years and in her current…
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Sempra shareholders to vote on safety and environmental proposal
Union seeks information about company’s response to ‘incidents’ Shareholder in Sempra are due to vote at the firm’s May 9 AGM on a proposal seeking information about the energy infrastructure company’s efforts to lower environmental and safety risks in the business. The Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) has filed a resolution urging Sempra’s board or its safety, sustainability and technology committee to report to shareholders by next year’s AGM on the steps the company ‘has taken to reduce the risks of significant environmental hazards or life-threatening safety incidents involving the operations of Sempra and its subsidiaries.’ UWUA says the…
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The week in GRC: US to add companies to China import ban list and lateral hiring by law firms fell in 2023
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – Reuters (paywall) reported that Boeing’s board has begun the search for a new leader at the company following the tenure of CEO Dave Calhoun, with many industry executives and analysts predicting it will seek an outside candidate. Boeing on Monday announced a broader than expected shake-up, with Calhoun stepping down by year-end on the heels of the company’s commercial plane-making head and its chair. The new CEO will face challenges such as improving the company’s safety culture, addressing quality issues and regaining the trust of regulators, customers and…
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Corning names general counsel
Michaune Tillman was previously general counsel and corporate secretary at Worthington Steel NYSE-listed Corning has recruited Michaune Tillman as senior vice president and general counsel. Tillman most recently was general counsel and corporate secretary at Worthington Steel. According to her LinkedIn profile, she was previously general counsel at Worthington Steel Processing and, before that, spent six years as general counsel and vice president for human resources and compliance at Worthington Armstrong Venture. Across these roles, Tillman was responsible for corporate governance, compliance, litigation, commercial transactions, antitrust, environmental health and safety, cyber-security, data privacy, import/export, labor and employment and intellectual property…
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Society for Corporate Governance names new leader
Paul Washington is a former lifetime achievement award winner at the Corporate Governance Awards The Society for Corporate Governance has appointed Paul Washington as its new president and CEO, effective April 15. Washington most recently was executive director of the ESG Center at The Conference Board. In that role he led the think tank in addressing a variety of corporate governance, sustainability and corporate citizenship issues. He was previously senior vice president, deputy general counsel and corporate secretary at Time Warner from 2006 to 2018, having also held several other senior roles in the firm’s corporate legal department. During his…
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GE general counsel departing as spin-off nears
Michael Holston has been closely involved in the separation of GE into three independent companies Michael Holston, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of General Electric Company (GE), is preparing to leave the firm as it approaches the completion of its spin-off transactions. GE in 2021 revealed its plan to form three independent public companies focused on aviation, healthcare and energy. GE HealthCare was spun off last year. GE announced Holston’s departure in its latest proxy statement, stating it was agreed ‘[i]n anticipation of the planned spin-off of GE Vernova in early April 2024’ and that he became…
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The week in GRC: More companies voluntarily disclosing misconduct to DoJ and court temporarily halts SEC climate rules
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – The Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported that the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted new SEC rules requiring public companies to disclose climate-related risks. The court granted a request for an administrative stay on the rules just over a week after Liberty Energy and Nomad Proppant Services filed a lawsuit challenging them. The court didn’t explain the reasoning behind the order. Shortly after the SEC ruling on March 6, a coalition of 10 states, including Georgia, West Virginia and Alaska, filed a legal challenge. The US…
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‘How does the experience line up?’: Experts discuss aligning executive pay with stakeholder expectations
Panelists on recent webinar encourage companies to simplify plans, explain their thinking and avoid too many year-on-year changes Investors remain focused on ensuring executive compensation plans deliver outcomes that align the experience of management with other stakeholders, according to panelists on a recent Governance Intelligence and IR Magazine webinar, held in partnership with Alliance Advisors. ‘We’re looking at the experiential aspects of the comp plan,’ said Paul Schneider, director of corporate governance at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which manages around C$250 bn ($184 bn) in assets. ‘How does the executive compensation plan align with the shareholder experience? That really came…
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Verizon faces vote on political spending incongruence report
SEC denies no-action request to omit the measure Verizon Communications shareholders appear set to vote on a shareholder resolution seeking information about any ways the company’s political spending does not align with its public positions after the SEC denied a request for the go-ahead to exclude the proposal. The proposal filed by As You Sow asks that Verizon’s board report each year on the company’s ‘political and electioneering expenditures, identifying and analyzing incongruence between such expenditures and the company’s operational and strategic needs and its stated values and policies. The report should state whether Verizon has made, or plans to…
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AFL-CIO seeks assessment of Wells Fargo’s respect for labor rights
Vote on union group’s proposal scheduled for April 30 AGM Wells Fargo & Company shareholders will vote next month on a proposal seeking a review of the bank’s respect for key labor rights. This comes amid concerns from unions and others about some US companies’ responses to an uptick in efforts to unionize in recent years. The resolution, filed by Segal Marco Advisors on behalf of the AFL-CIO Equity Index Funds, asks Wells Fargo’s board to ‘commission and oversee an independent, third-party assessment of [the company’s] respect for the internationally recognized human rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining.’…