Archive
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Cintas creates new ESG and compliance role
Christy Nageleisen was previously deputy general counsel for litigation with the company Cincinnati-based Cintas Corporation has promoted Christy Nageleisen to the newly created position of vice president of ESG and chief compliance officer. She was previously deputy general counsel for litigation with the company. In the new position, Nageleisen will oversee the company’s ESG efforts, including the development of a new enterprise-wide strategy and ESG-monitoring, reporting and compliance. She will also head up the company’s product and service compliance efforts, risk insurance programs and other corporate, federal, state and local compliance efforts. She will continue to report to Brock Denton,…
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The week in GRC: Investors step up votes for shareholder proposals and DoJ appoints FCPA chief
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web –Reuters said that, according to a report from Thomson Reuters Peer Monitor Index, law firms that have survived the pandemic are seeing average demand and productivity levels return to their pre-Covid-19 normal and some practices are outpacing 2019. Peer Monitor found an overall 0.6 percent increase in demand for legal services and a 0.5 decrease decrease in productivity between Q2 2021 and Q2 2019. The increases stand out even more compared to the second quarter of last year, when coronavirus lockdowns were in full swing. Demand for legal services…
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HF Foods Group appoints general counsel
Christine Chang joining company from Boyd Gaming Nasdaq-listed HF Foods Group has hired Christine Chang as general counsel and chief compliance officer, effective September 8. She will report jointly to HF Foods CEO Peter Zhang and board chair Russell Libby. Chang most recently worked at Boyd Gaming, which she joined in 2020 and where she is vice president for legal affairs, labor relations and litigation. Before that, she worked at Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas, where she held several positions of increasing responsibility, her last role being vice president and chief counsel for litigation. Chang began her legal career as…
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US issuers still split on ESG standards, study finds
As the SEC considers imposing climate-related reporting rules, US companies are divided on what they should look like Half of US public companies say third-party ESG standards are difficult understand, address immaterial information and lack transparency, according to a report by the US Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC). Despite recent and concerted efforts to standardize ESG reporting standards and frameworks, only 9 percent of companies report that standard setters provide consistent, easy-to-understand metrics. Forty-one percent of companies report that they do not rely on any standard-setting body when developing climate change and ESG disclosures for SEC…
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Ironwood Pharmaceuticals hires CLO
John Minardo was previously general counsel with influenza vaccine company Seqirus Boston-based Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has appointed John Minardo as senior vice president and chief legal officer overseeing the healthcare company’s corporate legal, compliance and intellectual property (IP) teams. He reports to Ironwood CEO Thomas McCourt. Minardo was most recently vice president, general counsel and member of the executive leadership team with influenza vaccine company Seqirus. Before joining Seqirus in 2015, he was vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer at Novartis’s influenza vaccines unit. Before that, he was head of legal for the North American business unit of Novartis…
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SEC gives green light to Nasdaq board diversity plan
Exchange takes ‘comply or explain’ approach The SEC on Friday approved Nasdaq’s plan to promote diversity on boards. The move opens the door for Nasdaq to require companies listed on the exchange to have – or explain why they do not have – at least two diverse board members, including one who self-identifies as female and one who self-identifies as either an under-represented minority or LGBTQ+. Nasdaq-listed companies will also have to disclose in aggregate form the voluntary self-identified gender and racial characteristics and LGBTQ+ status of their boards. In a regulatory filing, SEC officials write that the exchange’s plan…
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The week in GRC: Companies delay return-to-work plans and Vanguard to pay vaccinated workers
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – The Wall Street Journal reported that President Biden’s approaching decision about who should be the next Federal Reserve chair has led to reviews of Jerome Powell’s record on bank regulation and how strict the rulebook should be for Wall Street. During Powell’s tenure, the Fed has revamped large-bank stress tests, tailored its rules for US banks based on their size and simplified key post-financial crisis regulations such as the Volcker rule. Powell says that collectively these steps have clarified or better calibrated the Fed’s rules. But some progressive…
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VSE Corporation hires legal chief
Farinaz Tehrani will join the company on August 16 Alexandria, Virginia-based VSE Corporation has hired Farinaz Tehrani as senior vice president, chief legal officer (CLO) and corporate secretary, effective August 16. In her new role, Tehrani will report to president and CEO John Cuomo and will head up the Nasdaq-listed company’s legal, compliance and regulatory functions. Tehrani joins VSE having previously been CLO at private equity-backed Advantia Health. In that role she has managed areas such as board governance, M&A, equity and debt offerings, regulatory matters, intellectual property, litigation, risk management, privacy and employment matters. Earlier in her career she…
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Gensler expects climate disclosure proposal by year-end
Says disclosures should be consistent and comparable After what has proved to be an arresting proxy season with several surprises, the investor relations and corporate governance communities gathered at the ESG Integration Forum – Summer 2021 last month to discuss their takeaways and best practices for ESG engagement and reporting. These are some of the key talking points. Growing E&S support Whether it’s Engine No 1’s victory at ExxonMobil or any number of proposals related to the environment or diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), Matt DiGuiseppe, vice president of research and ESG at Diligent, said this proxy season has been…
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After an ‘eye-popping’ proxy season: Takeaways from the ESG Integration Forum – Summer 2021
Panelists at the recent IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary event assessed the more surprising outcomes from this year’s proxy season and what they mean for issuers’ ESG reporting, engagement and targeting efforts SEC chair Gary Gensler has given governance and compliance professionals a heads up on when they can expect to see the agency’s plans for requiring companies to report on climate risk and what that may entail. In remarks to the Principles for Responsible Investment last week, Gensler said he has asked the SEC staff to develop a mandatory climate risk disclosure rule proposal by the end of the…