Archive
-
Prudential’s general counsel to retire
Ann Kappler, deputy general counsel with the company, will take on the role Tim Harris, executive vice president and general counsel at Prudential Financial, has decided to retire after more than three decades at the company. Ann Kappler, senior vice president, deputy general counsel and head of external affairs, will take on the role of executive vice president and general counsel from September 1. She will report to Prudential chair and CEO Charles Lowrey and will join the company’s executive leadership team. Harris will stay on at Prudential through the first quarter of 2021 as part of the transition. Kappler…
-
Is ESG all about the ‘G’? That depends on your time horizon
The conventional wisdom has it that governance is the most dominant of the three E, S and G pillars. But Guido Giese, Linda-Eling Lee and Zoltán Nagy say MSCI’s analysis finds different results when looking at contribution to performance over different time horizons This article first appeared on MSCI.com While governance showed more financial significance in the short term, environmental and social issues’ contributions to stock price performance unfolded largely over our full 13-year study period As opposed to ‘event’ risks that were more immediately priced in by investors, some issues, such as carbon emissions, presented a risk of ‘erosion’…
-
Weatherford appoints general counsel and CCO
Scott Weatherholt previously worked at Arena Energy Weatherford International has recruited Scott Weatherholt as executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer (CCO). Weatherholt was previously senior vice president and general counsel at Arena Energy and its affiliates, a role in which he had a focus on offshore Gulf of Mexico shelf exploration and production activities. Before that, he was an executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Midstates Petroleum, where his work included legal oversight of a merger with Amplify Energy and a large debt-for-debt recapitalization. Earlier in his career, Weatherholt spent a decade at Samson…
-
Coca-Cola hires Ford’s general counsel
Bradley Gayton has spent almost 30 years at the car company Douglas Chia, president of Soundboard Governance and fellow at the Rutgers Center for Corporate Law and Governance What governance developments do you expect to be most prominent among the 2020 entries? The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the landscape for the entire world, including corporate governance. This should have a huge impact on the 2020 entries in terms of how companies and their boards are facing the unprecedented challenges caused by this epic event. The #BlackLivesMatter movement has also upped expectations for companies and boards in the US, and I…
-
Judges look ahead to Corporate Governance Awards entries
Corporate Secretary asked three of the judges for this year’s Corporate Governance Awards to share some thoughts as we prepare for the incoming nominations Ford Motor Company veteran Bradley Gayton will join The Coca-Cola Company on September 1 as senior vice president and general counsel. Gayton is moving to Coca-Cola having spent almost 30 years at Ford, where he was most recently group vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel. He has been a member of the senior management team and was responsible for sustainability, environment and safety engineering, corporate services, global shared service center operations, security and Ford…
-
How Covid-19 employment litigation is taking shape
Seyfarth Shaw attorneys examine patterns in cases already filed and outline steps to protect companies from lawsuits The Covid-19 pandemic has spawned a wave of employment litigation directly and indirectly based on related health risks and employers’ response to the crisis. This column provides our initial impressions from our data collection and analysis of those cases, and our thoughts on how companies can try to limit their potential liabilities. TYPES OF LAWSUITS In both state and federal courts, employees have advanced a wide variety of claims in response to Covid-19’s effect on their workplace. Given the unprecedented nature and breadth…
-
The week in GRC: Companies start to reveal pandemic impact, and corporate Covid-19 contact-tracing programs planned
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – The Wall Street Journal noted that companies are starting to give investors their first complete look at the effects the Covid-19 pandemic has had on their balance sheets. The largest 500 US public companies are expected to report a 44 percent drop in earnings for the second quarter amid widespread lockdown orders, according to analysts polled by FactSet. That compares with a 14.9 percent decline in the first quarter. If this is the case, the 44 percent decline would reflect the S&P 500’s largest year-over-year drop in earnings…
-
SEC approves revised proxy adviser reforms
Changes to proposals don’t appease ISS or avoid split vote The SEC yesterday voted to adopt measures governing the proxy advisory industry but drew back from more far-reaching requirements it had initially proposed. Under the final rule amendments, proxy advisers will have to provide ‘specified conflicts of interest disclosure in their proxy voting advice.’ They will also have to adopt policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure companies that are the subject of proxy voting advice have the advice made available to them at the same time or before it is disseminated to investors. In addition, proxy advisers will have…
-
Poseida Therapeutics hires general counsel and CCO
Company went public this month Poseida Therapeutics, which launched its IPO on Nasdaq earlier this month, has hired Harry Leonhardt as general counsel and chief compliance officer (CCO). Leonhardt was most recently senior vice president, general counsel, CCO, corporate secretary and a member of the executive committee at Halozyme Therapeutics. Before working at Halozyme, he was senior vice president for legal and compliance, corporate secretary and a member of the executive committee at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2012. Earlier in his career, Leonhardt served as general counsel for a number of San Diego, California-based…
-
USAA recruits new CLO
Bob Johnson previously worked at Truist Financial Corporation USAA has hired Bob Johnson as chief legal officer and general counsel, reporting to CEO Wayne Peacock. Johnson joins USAA from Truist Financial Corporation – created by a merger last year between BB&T Corporation and SunTrust Banks – where he was general counsel for corporate, commercial and legal shared services. He succeeds Deneen Donnley, who announced her retirement from USAA in September 2019. Johnson was formerly general counsel at BB&T for almost a decade, with responsibility for the legal, government affairs, human resources and CSR teams. He was part of an executive…