The Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance has won funding to begin a yearlong fellowship for research into such issues as CEO pay and has created an online training course for board directors.
The Edgar Woolard Fellowship (funded by the Investor Responsibility Research Center) — named in honor of the former DuPont Co. CEO — will fund the research of 21-year-old university senior Craig Ferrere, a finance major who is looking to find better ways of matching executive pay with performance.
Ferrere said he aims to find analytical tools that measure an executive’s worth more objectively and more accurately than peer comparisons, which has been a primary cause of escalating pay.
Earlier this year, Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center, helped put together an Internet multimedia course on the complex legal and philosophical dynamics of being a board member. “How to Be(come) a Director” was commissioned by the National Association of Corporate Directors, with the goal of teaching the essentials of board governance: ethics, accountability and competence.
The self-paced course costs $395, and includes video presentations from Elson and other experts. In today’s corporate world, a savvy, capable board is critical, Elson said, but directors can come to the role without adequate appreciation for the balancing act they’ll be expected to pull off.
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