Archive
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Physical risk said to drive investors’ climate interest
Boards should view climate change as indeterminate-term problem, says sustainable investing expert The physical risks stemming from climate change are the reason financial markets are increasingly focused on global warming, according to Julie Gorte, senior vice president for sustainable investing at Impax Asset Management and Pax World Funds. Speaking on episode 114 of The Ticker, the regular podcast of Corporate Secretary sister publication IR Magazine, Gorte says: ‘It doesn’t matter if you emit nothing – you can still have climate risk. You could have been a completely carbon-neutral firm in Paradise, California two years ago, and you would still have…
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Covid-19 not derailing board diversity for RBC GAM
Firm seeks minimum of 25 percent female board members RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM) will continue to press companies on board diversity amid the Covid-19 pandemic. RBC GAM this year updated its guidelines to state that it would vote against certain directors if a board does not have a minimum of 25 percent female members. The firm is a signatory to the 30% Club Canada investors group, which aims to have women fill 30 percent of positions on the boards and the executive management teams of all S&P/TSX Composite Index companies by 2022. Asked whether the issue of board…
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Zogenix recruits general counsel
Shawnte Mitchell previously worked at Aptevo Therapeutics Shawnte Mitchell has joined Nasdaq-listed Zogenix as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary. In her new role, Mitchell is a member of the Zogenix executive team, heads up its legal team and manages certain corporate affairs. Zogenix is a pharmaceutical company seeking to develop and commercialize therapies for patients with rare diseases such as forms of childhood-onset epilepsy. Mitchell previously worked at Aptevo Therapeutics, where she was most recently senior vice president and general counsel working on the company’s strategic and operational plans and overseeing compliance, governance, SEC, intellectual property, data privacy…
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Covid-19 said to drive ‘step change’ in corporate access
Citi’s global head of access expects virtual meeting activity to rise to 20 percent-30 percent of total access Covid-19 is driving a major change in attitudes toward virtual meetings and will have a lasting impact on the corporate access industry, according to panelists on a recent webinar hosted by Corporate Secretary sister publication IR Magazine and OpenExchange. Companies and investors have rapidly shifted to virtual meetings to maintain contact during stay-at-home restrictions put in place around the world. In a sign of the change in behavior, OpenExchange, a video exchange platform used by the financial community, conducted more meetings in…
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The week in GRC: Pandemic hampers compliance monitors, and companies retooling amid Covid-19 face liabilities
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – In an effort to chart the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on corporate America, The Wall Street Journal and MyLogIQ analyzed public filings for companies in the S&P Composite 1500 Index. The findings include that almost 300 companies withdrew their financial guidance, citing Covid-19. Roughly 175 companies suspended stock buybacks or cut their dividend, while 100 firms that employ a combined 3 million people said they would furlough workers. – CNBC reported that eBay hired Jamie Iannone, Walmart’s COO for US e-commerce, as its new CEO. Iannone will…
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SEC and Delaware guide on proxies and AGM notices
David Bell and Soo Hwang explain recent regulatory responses to the pandemic As part of its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the SEC has provided guidance on updating the time, date or location of a shareholder meeting and has eliminated the federal securities law requirement that such a change require a full mailing of notice to stockholders. On April 6, meanwhile, Delaware governor John Carney issued an order clarifying that new mail or email notice would not be necessary. Section 4 of the order states that notice requirements will be satisfied for purposes of Delaware state law if the document…
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Duolingo appoints first general counsel
Stephen Chen most recently worked at Proofpoint Language-learning platform Duolingo has hired Stephen Chen as the company’s first general counsel. Chen most recently was associate general counsel and vice president at Proofpoint. He has also held in-house legal positions at public companies including Yahoo and VMWare. During his career, he has led more than 50 strategic transactions, including acquisitions, investments and joint ventures, according to a Duolingo announcement. He has also provided legal support for IPOs and other capital market transactions that have raised more than $1.3 billion combined, the company states. ‘Having spent most of my career working at…
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Enhancing leadership resilience during Covid-19
Boards have options to ensure continuity when regular notice and quorum requirements cannot be met due to an emergency Business continuity planning during the Covid-19 pandemic requires boards of directors and senior management teams to confront the unthinkable: how will the business continue to function if key leaders and decision-makers are incapacitated? Boards, senior management and corporate counsel should therefore consider whether the company has in place appropriate leadership resilience plans, both with respect to senior executive emergency succession and board emergency procedures. It has been a common practice for at least the past decade for boards of large public…
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Covid-19 poses challenges for audit committees as reporting looms
PwC’s Paula Loop explains some of the issues directors should be addressing Audit committees have a lot of work on their hands in overseeing financial reporting during what the Covid-19 pandemic means is a highly irregular quarter, according to Paula Loop, leader of PwC’s Governance Insights Center. The crisis is causing unprecedented disruption and uncertainty around both companies’ business health and how they are operating, with millions of employees working from home – not to mention millions more who have lost jobs or have been furloughed. The SEC, in an effort to address potential compliance problems arising due to the…
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Delek US hires new general counsel
Abby Yates previously worked at EthosEnergy Brentwood, Tennessee-based Delek US Holdings and Delek Logistics Partners have appointed Abby Yates to the role of executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, effective April 9. Yates previously spent six years as general counsel, chief compliance counsel and senior vice president for HR at EthosEnergy, a joint venture between Siemens and Wood Group. Before that, she spent 10 years working at Wood Group, initially as senior litigation counsel and then as divisional counsel to the gas turbine services division. She began her career at law firm Morgan Lewis in Philadelphia and has…