Janet Dine qualified as a barrister in 1973 and practiced at the English Bar. In 1978 she became a lecturer at King’s College London until moving to Essex in 1992. From 1987-9 she was a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and remains a Senior Fellow of the Institute. From 1992-3 […]
Archive | February, 2014
Nominate a Rising Star in Corporate Governance
The Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School is now accepting nominations for the annual Rising Star of Corporate Governance Awards. I’ve nominate several but only one made the cut. Competition is getting tougher every year as interest in corporate governance increases. (more…)
Review: Getting Women on to Corporate Boards
This slim but informative volume contains contributions from practitioners, policy-makers, principle-setters, advocacy groups and researchers on gender balance in the boardroom, the outcomes of the Norwegian quota law and its snowball effects in other countries. The book came out of a Think Tank organized in Oslo in March 2011. The Norwegian quota law demanded a […]
Call for Papers: IRRCi Deadline Approaches for Academics and Practitioners
The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi) deadline approaches for its third annual competition for research that examines the interaction of the real economy with investment theory. Two papers – one academic and one practitioner – each will receive the 2014 IRRC Institute Research Award along with a $10,000 award. (more…)
Video Friday: The Coming Collapse of the American Corporation?
From a CSES Lecture Series event held on February 6th, 2014 at Cornell University. Gerald (Jerry) Davis presented his research “The Coming Collapse of the American Corporation (and What Comes Next)?” Shareholder-owned corporations were the central pillars of the US economy in the twentieth century. Due to the success of the shareholder value movement and […]
Apple Inc. (AAPL): How I Voted – Proxy Score 89
Apple Inc. (NASD:AAPL) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 2/28/2014. ProxyDemocracy.org was down for maintenance when I checked and voted on 2/19/2014, so no voting advice there. I checked a few other sources such as CalPERS, Florida SBA and OTPP but none had disclosed their votes on their sites as of yesterday. I voted […]
CalPERS Governance: Election Reforms
Testimony of James McRitchie Finance & Administration Committee, Agenda Item 6b, February 18, 2014 (Staff Report) As the Harold Stassen of CalPERS, having run for the Board more times unsuccessfully than anyone else, I have some experience with the governing rules and favor the actions recommended by staff but with additional improvements to recommendation 2, CEO […]
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFM): How I Voted – Proxy Score 75
Whole Foods Market, Inc. $WFM is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 2/24/2014. ProxyDemocracy.org was down for maintenance when I checked and voted on 2/16/2013, so no voting advice there. Fortunately, I did get some help from PIRC. I voted with management 75% of the time. View Proxy Statement. (more…)
Video Friday: MyShares App Available
The “MyShares” App is a must have for shareholders, IR departments and consultancy firms of publicly listed companies across Europe and the US. Browse through the latest key corporate documents relating to the Annual / Extraordinary general meetings of listed companies across main indices. (more…)
Fleming to Head SEC's Office of the Investor Advocate
The Dodd-Frank act created a new permanent Investor Advisory Committee (SEC-IAC) to consult with and advise the SEC on matters, such as making recommendations to Congress for legislative changes on the regulation of securities products, trading strategies and fee structures, the effectiveness of disclosures, and other investor protection initiatives. The IAC is comprised of the […]
Strange Bedfellows: From Icahn to Ican't
The Rock Center for Corporate Governance and the NACD Northern California Chapter hosted a conversation between Professor Joe Grundfest and dragon slayer Anne Simpson, Director of Corporate Governance at CalPERS, about how Apple and CalPERS ended up on the same side in a shareholder activism showdown. (more…)
Myshares App Aimed at Retail Shareholders
Guest Post: Miguel Carrasco – Managing Director and proxy solicitation consultant at Proxycensus Ltd specializing in issues relating to information transmittal, social media technology in IR and the technicalities of the cross border voting process. He is also a member of the ICGN, ECGI, CoF and the Investor Relations Society. (more…)
Quick Bites on Corporate Governance
CorpGov.net publisher/shareowner activist, James McRitchie in the news. Shareholders push for more say over board members (WSJ’s MarketWatch), on proxy access proposals at Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Sued again for daring to file proxy proposals, EMC sues shareholder activists over bid to separate CEO, chairman roles (Boston Business Journal). They lost their ‘no-action’ request […]
Pensions & Investments Endorses CII Petition for Universal Proxy
I was delighted to see the influential trade publication, Pensions&Investments, endorse a petition to the SEC sent by the Council of Institutional Investors to amend its rules to allow a complete list of board candidates to be included in corporate proxies. (Better Way to Elect Directors, 2/3/2014: subscribe) (more…)
Video Friday: 'The Evolution of Governance' – Corporate Governance Review 2013
This video uses a bicycle ride (perhaps a marathon?) to point out key milestones in UK corporate governance in recent years. I’d love to see something similar for the US but American’s should be able to relate to the UK experience. For more information download the FTSE 350 Corporate Governance Review 2013. (more…)
CSP Inc. (CSPI): How I Voted – Proxy Score 100
The CSP (CSPI) annual shareowners meeting is coming up February 11, 2014, so there isn’t much time to vote. Since most readers are not familiar with this obscure company, I’ll start with a description from GMI Ratings: CSP Inc. (CSPI) along with its subsidiaries, develops and markets information technology (IT) integration solutions and high-performance cluster […]
A Big Reason Small-Caps Undertake Bad Financings: Board Composition
Guest Post: Adam J. Epstein is a NACD Board Leadership Fellow, the small-cap contributing editor to Directorship magazine, and advises small-cap boards through his firm, Third Creek Advisors. He is the author of The Perfect Corporate Board: A Handbook for Mastering the Unique Challenges of Small-Cap Companies (McGraw-Hill, 2012). A version of this article first […]
Directors Forum 2014: Afternoon Sessions
Below are notes I took during the afternoon sessions at the Corporate Directors Forum 2014, held on the beautiful campus of the University of San Diego, January 26-28, 2014. This year, I was only able to attend on January 27th. The program was subject to the Chatham House Rule, so there will be little in the way of attribution below […]
Directors Forum 2014: Morning Sessions
Below are some notes I took during the morning sessions at the Corporate Directors Forum 2014, held on the beautiful campus of the University of San Diego, January 26-28, 2014. This year, I was only able to attend on January 27th. The program was subject to the Chatham House Rule, so there will be little in the way of attribution […]