Archive
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Governance professionals guide on preparing for 2023: Part 1
Industry experts at Corporate Secretary event discuss topics ranging from the proxy season to director training As in all relationships in life, trust is a key ingredient of a long and healthy relationship between a company and its shareholders. But trust is a fragile thing that takes a long time to gain, very little time to lose and a lot of effort to rebuild. Starting with the Boeing 737 Max scandal, the latest episode of the Governance Matters podcast asks what boards can learn about managing trust in their companies. When it comes to the role they play in helping…
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The week in GRC: Activist urges Alphabet to cut costs and SEC reports rise in enforcement actions
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – Reuters reported that Tyson Foods’ board is overseeing a ‘thorough review’ of the arrest of CFO John Tyson on charges that he trespassed at a young woman’s house while intoxicated. Tyson, great-grandson of the company’s founder, apologized during a quarterly earnings call for his November 6 arrest for criminal trespassing and public intoxication in Fayetteville, Arkansas. ‘I’m embarrassed and I want to let you know that I take full responsibility for my actions,’ Tyson said. ‘This was an incident inconsistent with our company values, as well as my…
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Governance and getting M&A done amid headwinds
Industry experts assess key aspects of the market, from governance to due diligence, at Corporate Secretary and IR Magazine event The M&A market is facing challenges after a stunning 2021, but deals continue to be done and governance, investor relations and corporate development officials gathered at the Corporate Secretary and IR Magazine M&A Forum in New York last week to share insights on how to do deals and maintain good governance and value amid the headwinds. Dealmaking bounced back in 2021 having been largely frozen out by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. This year – and going into 2023 –…
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Governance Matters podcast: What boards can learn from Boeing’s 737 Max scandal
This episode of the Governance Matters podcast looks at how companies can tackle or avoid scandals and other negative events that can cause loss of revenue, reputational damage and erosion of shareholder value Governance professionals met at the Corporate Secretary Forum in New York last week to share their expertise on issues affecting the community as 2023 looms. One item under discussion was the increased pressure on companies to make statements about political issues and whether and when to do so. Timothy Ring, senior vice president and corporate secretary with MetLife, said it is important to have a robust and…
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American Financial Group promotes CCO to general counsel
Mark Weiss has been with the insurer since 2010 Cincinnati, Ohio-based American Financial Group (AFG) is promoting chief compliance officer (CCO) Mark Weiss to become senior vice president and general counsel, effective December 1. Weiss became CCO at AFG in 2020. He joined the company in 2010 as assistant vice president and assistant general counsel and became vice president in 2015. Before joining AFG, he was a corporate and transactional lawyer at Keating Muething & Klekamp for almost 20 years. AFG is an insurance holding company. Through the operations of Great American Insurance Group, AFG is engaged in property and…
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Oracle hires former HSBC attorney as legal chief
Stuart Levey was the first undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Treasury Oracle has hired Stuart Levey as executive vice president and chief legal officer (CLO). Levey from 2012 to 2020 was CLO of HSBC Holdings, before which he was a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations. He was most recently CEO of the Diem Association, a blockchain technology organization. From 2004 until 2011 Levey was the first undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Department of the Treasury. He was appointed by former president George W Bush and stayed on in that…
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Shareholder activism in Canada lowest in five years, study finds
But activist win rates increase sharply, according to Morrow Sodali Canadian companies saw eight shareholder activist campaigns in Canada during the 2022 proxy season, seven of which were board-related, new research shows. This marks a drop from 19 campaigns in 2021 and a significant fall compared with 2019 when activist activity peaked at 33 campaigns. The decline has been sharp over the past three years and possibly accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. This is according to the2022 Canadian Proxy Season Review published by Morrow Sodali, which tracks contested activity over the last five years.Contested activity, which does not include unsolicited…
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CDP questionnaire to add ISSB’s climate disclosure standard
Move should accelerate use of ISSB ‘global baseline’ for sustainability reporting CDP, the environmental disclosure platform, has announced it will incorporate the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) climate-related disclosure standard into its annual questionnaire as collaboration between different reporting bodies gathers pace. The change, which will come into effect for the 2024 reporting cycle, is likely to accelerate the adoption of ISSB standards. CDP says more than 18,000 companies have disclosed environmental information through its platform in 2022. Integration between the ISSB and CDP should also relieve some of the reporting burden on companies, given that they can use the…
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US companies advised to adopt ‘holistic strategy’ to mitigate threats
Warning comes as Ontic survey shows threats in the workplace doubled in 2022 – Reuters reported that the US Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases that may make it easier to challenge the regulatory power of federal agencies in disputes involving the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the SEC. The justices are weighing an appeal by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Axon Enterprise after a lower court dismissed the Taser manufacturer’s lawsuit contesting the constitutionality of the FTC’s structure in a bid to counter an antitrust action related to its acquisition of a rival. In one case, the justices are considering the…
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The week in GRC: New York voters approve $4.2 bn environmental bond and ISSB chair hopeful on aligning its standards and EU rules
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web Legal and compliance leaders at US companies are facing increasing pressure as strong political, social and economic headwinds persist and companies become more vulnerable to an array of threats and risks. In 2022, 34 percent of American companies received or investigated between two and five threats per week, compared with 14 percent of firms in 2021. Four percent of companies recorded more than six threats per week, while the number of companies dealing with fewer than one weekly threat fell to 19 percent from 24 percent last year. This…
