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Plus, Meta, ServiceNow and Huntsman welcome new legal heads Ford Motor Company has promoted Sarah Fortt to the position of chief compliance officer in addition to her role as deputy general counsel and corporate secretary. Fortt joined the company in 2025, prior to which she served as partner at firm Latham & Watkins. In a LinkedIn post Fortt says: ‘I have long encouraged close collaborations between the corporate governance and corporate compliance functions – these two fundamental legal practices are quite literally a match made in the boardroom. ‘To my global colleagues in Ford’s corporate securities, governance and compliance teams,…

Plus, Parsons. Alithya and Ashford bolsters their legal teams 2025 has been a watershed year across the GRC profession. Deregulation has taken center stage, shifting more power to the boardroom and dialing back DEI and ESG requirements. That pivot is reflected clearly in the stories Governance Intelligence readers clicked on most over the last 12 months. Our most-read piece of the year was a Governance Matters podcast episode featuring Neil McCarthy, co-founder and chief product officer of DragonGC. McCarthy unpacked the SEC’s recent enforcement cases involving disclosures around executive perks – including aircraft use – and why companies now considering…

Hope Mehlman reflects on her longstanding career Governance Intelligence recently presented its18th annual Corporate Governance Awardsat a gala ceremony this past November in New York City. Live from the red carpet, we spoke with several esteemed guests from across the world of GRC, includingHope Mehlman, chief legal and corporate affairs officer at Ally Financial. Mehlman was namedthe 2025 recipient of theLifetime Achievement Award. Before the ceremony we asked about what this recognition means to her, the one piece of advice she would give aspiring governance professionals and why teams should consider entering next year. The awards celebrate outstanding achievements by…

Plus Securitize, NW Natural and Hemlo Mining bolster their governance teams On the latest episode of the Governance Matters podcast, senior reporter Natalie Bannerman takes a closer look at the standout moments and major themesemergingfrom the 2025 awards season. In a series of conversations with prominent governance leaders,weexplore how the industry is evolving and what continues to set theCorporate Governance Awardsapart as a benchmark of excellence. Guestsinclude: Brian Breheny, partnerat Skadden John Kim,assistant corporatesecretaryand lead counsel at GeneralMotors Lori Zyskowski,partnerat Gibson Dunn Kevin Bohl,senior vice president, deputy generalcounseland assistant corporate secretary at Ventas Fernando Contreras,VP,chief compliance officer & corporate secretaryatBaker Hughes…

Plus, Asana, Everest and Berkshire Hathaway name new legal hires Jennifer Newstead, the former chief legal officer at Meta, will join Apple as SVP from January before transitioning to general counsel by March 2026. Newstead is to succeed Kate Adams who is retiring from her role as general counsel. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO says that he is ‘incredibly grateful to her for the leadership she has provided, for her remarkable determination across a myriad of highly complex issues and above all, for her thoughtfulness, her deeply strategic mind and her sound counsel.’ Newstead was most recently chief legal officer at…

Plus, Life360, Strategy Inc and Incyte all name new general counsel The US is entering a new phase of financial deregulation, marked most visibly by the November 2025 decision by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and other federal regulators to ease key leverage rules for banks, which set minimum capital ratios to ensure financial institutions have enough capital to absorb losses and maintain solvency. The reforms reduce the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio (eSLR) for the largest institutions and lighten capital obligations for smaller banks. According to Reuters, subsidiaries at major banks could see capital requirements fall by about 27…

Plus, Forward Industries, Ur-Energy and Solar Alliance Energy grow their GRC teams Published earlier this week, ISS released its 2026 Benchmark Policy Updates, effective for shareholder meetings held on or after February 1, 2026. One of the most consequential shifts in the newly released standards is that the proxy advisory will recommend voting against directors at companies with multi-class share structures, unless specific exceptions apply. Notably, ISS would permit support where the structure involves convertible preferred shares evaluated on an ‘as-converted’ basis and this treatment applies regardless of whether the multi-class shares are common or preferred. This marks a significant…

Corporate leaders from across industries reflected on the pride, purpose and impact of being recognized at the 2025 Corporate Governance Awards. Though corporate governance is centered on sticking to the regulations, it’s important to recognize those GCs and legal teams who go above and beyond. At its best, award-winning corporate governance reflects integrity, transparency and purpose-driven leadership at listed companies. We spoke to the nominees and winners of the 2025 Corporate Governance Awards to discover their perspectives on what it means to be recognized for excellence in the field – and why other governance professionals should follow in their wake.…

Bank of Nova Scotia, Myers Industries and tZERO also grow their compliance teams Nasdaq-listed contract research group Fortrea has named Agnieszka Gallagher as its new general counsel, chief compliance officer and corporate secretary. Gallagher succeeds Stillman Hanson, who is leaving the company after a planned transition period. Before joining Fortrea, Gallagher served as chief legal officer and corporate secretary at Standard Biotools. Prior to this, she was general counsel, chief compliance officer and company secretary at OraSure Technologies, as well as chief compliance and ethics officer at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Over her 25-year career she also held roles at ViiV Healthcare,…

Long-serving governance professional passed away in October 2025 The 2025 Corporate Governance Forum brought together governance professionals, board members and advisers for discussions that included proxy disclosure, shareholder activism and the politicization of corporate decision-making. Across all panels, one theme stood out: governance has become more strategic, more transparent and perhaps, more political than ever. Here’s five takeaways from the event. 1. The proxy statement is a storytelling tool, not a compliance document During the first session of the day – Best practices for optimizing your proxy statement, streamlining preparation and improving disclosures – speakers from Murphy Oil, AIG and…