Archive
-
The week in GRC: ABA group to assess impact of AI on legal profession and 3M’s board approves $6 bn earplug settlement
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web Vanguard, like BlackRock, supported fewer ESG-related shareholder proposals during this year’s US proxy season. According to Vanguard, the asset manager supported 2 percent of ESG-based proposals this year, compared with 12 percent in 2022. Vanguard says the decline in support is largely attributable to the nature of the shareholder proposals – a sentiment held by a number of firms and governance observers – with the firm pointing out that it evaluates the proposals case by case, ‘assessing each on its merits and in the context of the facts and…
-
Northfield Bank picks risk chief
Vickie Tomasello has previously worked at Lakeland Bancorp, HSBC and M&T Bank Northfield Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Northfield Bancorp, has recruited Vickie Tomasello as executive vice president and chief risk officer. In her new role, Tomasello manages the governance of risk programs and oversees the bank’s compliance, information security, bank secrecy, security, credit administration and risk-management work. She was most recently chief audit officer for Lakeland Bancorp. According to her LinkedIn profile, she was previously internal audit director and vice president at First Niagara Bank. Before that, she was internal audit manager at M&T Bank and later HSBC.…
-
ADM appoints new general counsel
Regina Bynote Jones to join company having most recently been chief legal officer for Baker Hughes Investors including Scottish Widows, La Française Group and the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum have joined forces to create a $1 tn+ coalition calling on the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to design international reporting standards on human and worker rights. In May 2023, the ISSB asked for feedback on where it should focus going forward. The 21-member coalition, brought together by responsible investment NGO ShareAction, has written to the ISSB urging it to prioritize researching human capital and human rights disclosure standards in…
-
Trillion-dollar coalition calls for human and worker rights focus at ISSB
ShareAction co-ordinated effort seeks better disclosure ADM has appointed Regina Bynote Jones as the company’s new senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, effective September 5. In her new role, Jones will oversee ADM’s global legal and regulatory affairs, compliance initiatives, security operations and government relations work. She will join the company’s executive council and be based at its Chicago headquarters. Jones is joining ADM having most recently been chief legal officer for Baker Hughes, which she joined in April 2020. Before that she was executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for Delek US Holdings and Delek…
-
Elicio Therapeutics hires general counsel
Megan Filoon was previously general counsel and corporate secretary for Molecular Templates Nasdaq-listed Elicio Therapeutics has hired Megan Filoon as general counsel. In her new role, Filoon oversees corporate governance and compliance functions at the company. She was most recently general counsel and corporate secretary at Molecular Templates, a publicly traded, oncology-focused biotech firm. In that position she advised the company’s board of directors and management team on corporate governance, securities, employment and real estate matters, among other areas, and was responsible for managing the legal, human resources and administrative departments. Filoon joined Molecular Templates in 2018 as corporate counsel…
-
What the new ISSB Standards mean for companies
Following the launch of the ISSB’s IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 standards this summer, what is the likely impact for corporates – and how can companies prepare? Noemi Distefano reports The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) published its first two global sustainability reporting standards in June this year. IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information and IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures aim to set a baseline level of disclosure to meet global market needs. Unconventionally, the standards were launched in a series of events hosted by partners of the ISSB in locations around the world including Frankfurt, New…
-
Ashland promotes compliance chief to general counsel
Robin Lampkin has been with the company for more than 30 years NYSE-listed Ashland has appointed company veteran Robin Lampkin as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Lampkin most recently was Ashland’s chief compliance officer. She joined the company in 1991 and during her 32 years with the firm has held various roles in areas such as tort litigation and global environmental regulation and remediation. She also has corporate governance experience from working with stakeholders on global regulatory compliance, training programs, policy administration and ethics investigations. Lampkin is a strategic adviser for global teams at Ashland on product…
-
The week in GRC: BlackRock supported fewer climate and social proposals this proxy season and US regulators eye directors sitting on competitors’ boards
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – The Financial Times (paywall) reported that US antitrust regulators are taking a tougher line on directors who sit on the boards of competing companies. So-called interlocking directorates at competing firms are prohibited in the US in most cases because they raise the risk of illicit co-ordination across businesses. Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Jonathan Kanter, head of the US Department of Justice’s (DoJ) antitrust division, are part of a new generation of progressive antitrust officials appointed by President Joe Biden who are taking…
-
Lack of co-ordination harming investor engagement, survey finds
Schroders polls views of more than 350 companies Investor engagement is suffering due to co-ordination issues at investment firms and the way ESG data is collected and processed, according to a survey by Schroders. The UK-based investor, which manages around £725 bn ($925 bn), surveyed more than 350 investee companies across 45 countries to look for ways to improve engagement practices. When asked to name the biggest barriers to engagement, the highest proportion of respondents – 27 percent – mention a lack of co-ordination within investor organizations. The report quotes an IR director from a technology company in Belgium, who…
-
Climate goals reported across multiple corporate sources, study finds
Sustainability report most popular by far but goals published across nine different areas The vast majority (96 percent) of companies publish voluntary climate goals, data or metrics in their sustainability or CSR report, though this data is also spread across eight other corporate sources, according to research from the Society for Corporate Governance and Persefoni. The company website is the next-most popular place to publish such information (59 percent), while investors and other stakeholders can also find voluntary climate goals and CDP questionnaires there (52 percent), the study finds. A further 42 percent say they disclose such data in a…