BlackRock CEO asks companies to provide board-approved strategic framework for long-term value creation
by Cydney Posner While Laurence D. Fink, co-founder and chief executive of BlackRock, has been decrying short-termism for a number of years, in his 2016 corporate governance letter to CEOs, he takes his advocacy a step further. According to this DealBook column, the letter was sent to 500 chief executives late […]
NACD governance survey reports on top board priorities, time commitment and other matters
by Cydney Posner The National Association of Corporate Directors has made available the highlights of its 2015-2016 Public Company Governance Survey of over a thousand directors and executives.
Directors overboard
by Cydney Posner Companies are paying increased attention to the potential for director “overboarding,” according to the WSJ. Many companies have adopted restrictions on the number of outside seats that directors may hold, often in response to shareholder requests. In addition, some institutional shareholders are guided in their voting by […]
Directors say: Do as I say, not as I do
by Cydney Posner According to this article in the WSJ, a forthcoming survey from accounting and consulting firm EisnerAmper LLP shows that the overwhelming majority of directors favor age and term limits, just not for themselves.
SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee takes on FASB
by Cydney Posner At Thursday’s meeting of the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee, the Committee approved the submission of a comment letter urging FASB to reconsider its proposal to make changes to the concept of “materiality” embodied in FASB’s Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting and FASB’s guidance on Notes to Financial […]
SEC adopts rules to implement two provisions of the FAST Act
by Cydney Posner The SEC has approved interim final rules implementing two provisions of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. As you may recall, the FAST Act was signed into law in early December and contained several measures that modified the JOBS Act or otherwise related to capital raising for […]
NYC Comptroller submits proxy access proposals to 72 companies for 2016
by Cydney Posner As noted in TheCorporateCounsel.net blog, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer has once again submitted, on behalf of a number of NYC pension funds, a raft of shareholder proposals for proxy access as part of the Comptroller’s continuing Boardroom Accountability Project. The list of the 72 companies targeted this […]
Nasdaq survey of corporate interaction with proxy advisory firms
by Cydney Posner Nasdaq and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce conducted a survey of public companies to gain insight into companies’ interactions with ISS and Glass Lewis, the two primary proxy advisory firms, with regard to the 2015 proxy season. Over 155 companies of all sizes and industries participated in […]
SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee takes on Nasdaq
by Cydney Posner At the January meeting of the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee, two Nasdaq representatives made a presentation regarding the recent Solicitation of Comments by the Nasdaq Listing and Hearing Review Council, a standing independent advisory committee, regarding some of the Nasdaq shareholder approval rules. The reaction of the […]