Archive
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PepsiCo and HPE take home top honors at Corporate Governance Awards
Winners of the 14th annual Corporate Governance Awards announced at special virtual ceremony – The SEC appointed Nicole Creola Kelly as chief of the agency’s office of the whistleblower. Kelly is at present senior special counsel in the office of the general counsel and has more than 20 years of experience with the SEC. Among her former roles, she was counsel to former SEC chair Mary Jo White, counsel to former SEC member Kara Stein and held stints in the enforcement division’s complex financial instruments unit, as well as the whistleblower’s office. – Reuters reported that union-affiliated pension fund adviser…
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The week in GRC: Campaigners warn of potential climate litigation against boards and SEC names PCAOB members
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web PepsiCo and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) yesterday won two of the most prestigious honors at the 14th annual Corporate Governance Awards. PepsiCo was awarded the governance team of the year (large cap) title for the second year running, while HPE was named best governance team of the year (small to mid-cap). PepsiCo also took home the prize for best ESG reporting (large cap), while HPE also won awards for best proxy statement (mid-cap) and best AGM. The top individual awards this year went to Kate Brennan of Marsh McLennan,…
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‘Companies aren’t making change at the speed needed’
Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel of As You Sow, discusses the non-profit’s latest thinking on climate risk and the need for measurable net-zero emissions targets Can you explain As You Sow’s history of shareholder advocacy on climate-related issues? We’ve been working on climate for more than a decade. What’s been interesting about climate and shareholders is that it’s been an evolving arena. When we first started working on it, climate wasn’t part of the dialogue. Our goal when we started out was the need for finance to be taking account of climate. Every shareholder should be looking at the…
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Lattice Semiconductor hires new general counsel
Tracy Feanny previously worked at National Instruments Corporation Nasdaq-listed Lattice Semiconductor Corporation has hired Tracy Feanny as corporate vice president, general counsel and secretary. Byron Milstead, who has held this position since 2008, will continue in his role with the company’s Singapore distribution subsidiary and will retire after a transitionary period. Feanny previously spent nine years at National Instruments Corporation, most recently as vice president, deputy general counsel and assistant secretary. She has also filled senior roles at Amazon Web Services and Dell Technologies, among other companies. Jim Anderson, president and CEO of Lattice, says in a statement: ‘We are…
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Interview with Ceres: Linking sustainability and governance
Rev Kirsten Snow Spalding is senior program director of the Ceres Investor Network. She spoke to Ben Maiden about how the 2021 proxy season may impact next year’s season and how governance issues are tied to sustainability performance Was the degree to which support for environmental proposals rose this proxy season a surprise? What I’m hearing from the [Ceres Investor Network] is that the climate crisis, as indicated by all of the scientific research, is now a major focus for investors, so it wasn’t a surprise to see they were going to start addressing this in a more robust way,…
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SEC reveals new guidance on shareholder proposal exclusions
Bulletin appears to offer more room for ESG measures The SEC’s division of corporation finance has updated its guidance on the process whereby companies seek permission to exclude shareholder proposals, potentially opening the door for more ESG-related measures to end up on proxy statements in 2022 and beyond. The division on November 3 issued a notice that it is rescinding three staff legal bulletins – 14I, 14J and 14K – following a review of staff experience applying the guidance in them. Each dropped bulletin was introduced during the Trump administration. Rule 14a-8 provides a regulatory basis for shareholders to submit…
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Anti-mandatory arb bill moves forward in House
Legislation has 201 co-sponsors – The Wall Street Journal reported that Jes Staley stepped down as CEO of Barclays under pressure from regulators about how he characterized his relationship with the convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. Barclays said Staley stepped down ‘in view of the conclusions’ made by UK regulators in an investigation into what Staley told the bank about his association with Epstein and what it told regulators about the relationship. The bank said the investigation didn’t find evidence that ‘Mr Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Mr Epstein’s alleged crimes’ and said Staley was…
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The week in GRC: Companies’ climate pledges face tougher scrutiny and SBTi seeks consensus on ‘net-zero’ meaning
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web A congressional committee this week voted to send to the House of Representatives legislation that would end mandatory arbitration in many cases. The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday passed the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (Fair) Act, which has bipartisan support. The bill, if passed into law, would prohibit pre-dispute arbitration agreements that force arbitration of employment, consumer, antitrust or civil rights disputes. It would also prohibit agreements and practices that ‘interfere with the right of individuals, workers and small businesses to participate in a joint, class or collective action…
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IFRS Foundation to launch sustainability standards board
New global baseline standards for sustainability disclosures will be introduced The IFRS Foundation Trustees (IFRSFT) has announced a series of measures intended to provide global financial markets with high-quality disclosures on climate and other sustainability issues. Amid high-profile climate change discussions at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, UK, the new developments lay the technical groundwork for a global sustainability disclosure standard-setter for the financial markets. The announcement covers the introduction of three new measures. First, the formation of a newInternational Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)to develop a comprehensive global baseline of high-quality sustainability disclosure standards intended to meet investors’ information needs.…
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Aclaris Therapeutics CLO and co-founder to retire
Kamil Ali-Jackson is also compliance chief and corporate secretary Kamil Ali-Jackson, chief legal officer (CLO), chief compliance officer and corporate secretary with Nasdaq-listed Aclaris Therapeutics, has announced her retirement, effective January 3, 2022, from the company she co-founded in 2012. Ali-Jackson has worked for more than 35 years in the legal and pharmaceutical industries. In addition to Aclaris, she co-founded NeXeption, a biopharmaceutical assets management company, and its affiliated companies, and served as its CLO from 2012 to 2020. Previously, she was legal counsel and a licensing business executive for a number of pharmaceutical companies such as Merck & Co,…