The Networkers
Philip Armstrong, Global Corporate Governance Forum
Philip A. Armstrong is the head of the Global Corporate Governance Forum in Washington D.C., which aims to advance corporate governance practices in developing countries and emerging markets. Armstrong, an internationally renowned expert on corporate governance, has held a variety of executive positions in South African firms. Born and educated in Zimbabwe, Armstrong is working with the Forum to assist board leadership teams in Brazil, Eastern Europe, parts of Africa, and Southeast Asia, an endeavor that includes teaching successful corporate governance practices, training financial journalists, and implementing dispute-resolution mechanisms. Armstrong was the principal convener and main editor of the 2002 King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa.
Kenneth Daly, National Association of Corporate Directors
As president and CEO of NACD, Kenneth Daly leads the largest association dedicated to serving the needs of corporate directors. This past year has been a busy one for Daly, as NACD aims to help directors restore confidence in the corporate governance of U.S. companies. The association issued its Key Agreed Principles to Strengthen Corporate Governance for U.S. Publicly Traded Companies as part of its Director Challenge campaign to provide a framework for restoring confidence. NACD has provided directors with a voice in Washington as well, weighing in on proposals from the SEC and Capitol Hill that would have an impact on its constituents. Says Daly: “Directors, managers, and investors—not legislators—should have the greatest say in rules pertaining to boards and their oversight areas.”
Paul DeNicola, The Conference Board
Under Paul DeNicola, an associate director of the Governance Center and Directors’ Institute at the Conference Board, the organization has established a Task Force on Executive Compensation, which brings together experts on governance, law, compensation, and ethics with both investors and corporations to discuss the issues. Additionally, DeNicola recently co-chaired The Conference Board Research Working Group on Corporate Governance and Sustainability. He served on the technical advisory group for The Conference Board Task Force on Executive Compensation. In addition to his position at The Conference Board, DeNicola is also an adjunct instructor of philosophy at Hofstra University, The City University of New York, and Nassau Community College.
Thomas J. Donohue, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Thomas J. Donohue is president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the largest business associations in the world. Since he assumed the post in 1997 after 13 years as president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, the U.S. Chamber’s revenues have tripled. Donohue has spearheaded several operations, such as forging a national energy strategy, strengthening capital markets, and protecting intellectual property, all with the goal of advancing the U.S. Chamber’s comprehensive competitiveness agenda and bolstering the U.S. economy. Additionally, Donohue has either established or helped strengthen Chamber organizations, such as the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, which has won significant cases in the courts at both state and federal levels; the National Chamber Litigation Center, which has become a strong contender in challenging anti-business measures; and VoteForBusiness.com, a grassroots organization, which aims to elect pro-business candidates to Congress.
John Engler, National Association of Manufacturers
After 20 years in the Michigan state senate and three terms as governor of Michigan, John Engler was named president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers in 2004. Since then, as the representative for the largest industry trade group in America, he has been a strong voice for maintaining U.S. competitiveness in manufacturing by eliminating excessive taxation and regulation, and addressing issues of healthcare, litigation, and energy costs. Under Engler’s direction, NAM helped establish the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in 2005 and the Alliance for Improving America’s Infrastructure in 2007 to promote investment in updating roads, rails, shipping, and other transportation systems. Engler has also helped NAM explore new, more progressive energy resources. Engler supports the expansion of sustainable energy and clean-coal technology as viable options for manufacturers.
David W. Smith, Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals
David W. Smith was elected president of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals in December 1991. The Society frequently advocates reporting and disclosure policies and tactics. This past September, Smith aided the Society in submitting a comment letter to the SEC on proxy access. The letter proposed several ideas on topics such as executive compensation and disclosure that would help to make the proxy process more efficient and meaningful for companies, executives, and shareholders.
Watchdogs and Governance Advisors
Making the Grade: RiskMetrics Group
Talk about influence—RiskMetrics may just be the most influential player in the corporate governance arena. The leading provider of corporate governance rankings, RiskMetrics provides numerous services to its corporate clients that include compensation modeling solutions and custom services. Originally spun off from JP Morgan in 1998, the firm has long since come into its own as one of the top advisory firms for companies and their boards, mainly through its acquisition of Institutional Shareholder Services. Executive Vice President and Special Counsel Patrick McGurn is among the nation’s finest governance experts, and a constant source of insight for fellow business-thinkers the world over. He is among the most astute minds in corporate governance practice and law and his writings on corporate governance, which can often be found in the pages of Directorship, are always highly informed with a touch of wit. Martha Carter is head of Global Research and Global Policy Board for RiskMetrics’ Governance unit and an architect of the firm’s approach to proxy voting policy. Company CEO M. Ethan Berman led JP Morgan’s Risk Management Services Group before the unit was spun off into RiskMetrics; today he continues to oversee the continued development of one of the business world’s most important advisory centers.
Gavin Anderson, Governance Metrics International
Gavin Anderson was chairman and CEO of Gavin Anderson & Company for 20 years before taking his position as chairman of GMI. Anderson goes beyond the national arena, examining corporate governance at a global level. Under Anderson’s leadership, GMI provides unbiased statistics and observations on corporate governance practices throughout the world. Recently, GMI reported country rankings based on overall quality of corporate governance. While the highest-ranking countries—Ireland, the U.K., Canada, Australia, and the U.S.—were not surprising, GMI believes the countries with the lowest ratings have great potential. In order to improve business, companies in emerging markets will have to become more transparent and less insular. South Africa, in particular, is one country GMI plans to watch.
Richard Bennett and Nell Minow, The Corporate Library
Nell Minow and Richard Bennett, co-founders of The Corporate Library, continue to be guardians of shareholder rights. Now in its 11th year, TCL offers risk research, moderately priced research reports, and web-based tools such as its global LeaderBoard, a database of directors. Minow is know for her tenacious questioning of today’s corporate governance practices and both she and Bennett have taken to blogging their opinions on the latest developments in the boardroom. Another influential member of the TCL team is Paul Hodgson, who authors many of the organization’s compensation reports, bringing keen analysis to the link between performance and executive pay, or, in TCL’s eyes more often than not, the lack thereof.
Mindy S. Lubber, Ceres
As president of Ceres, Mindy Lubber directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), an alliance that coordinates U.S. investor responses to the financial risks and opportunities posed by climate change. Her past service in government as the regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aids in her efforts to facilitate the efforts for boards to consider what kind of environmental impact their business imparts on the earth.
Robert McCormick, Glass Lewis & Co.
Robert McCormick is chief policy officer with governance and proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co., which serves institutional investors managing more than $17 trillion in assets combined. Glass Lewis’s international practice, a subsidiary of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, attends to governance, risk, and proxy voting issues for its more than 18,000 global clients. McCormick, who worked at Fidelity’s Management and Research branch prior to joining Glass Lewis, is an accomplished attorney who has contributed greatly to his firm’s position in the advisory business.
James Melican, Proxy Governance
The chairman at proxy advisory firm Proxy Governance, James Melican leads a firm dedicated to providing voters with information and advice concerning corporate governance initiatives. The firm takes both a long-term and specific approach to proxy advisory, analyzing company leadership on an “issue-by-company” basis, observing individual company metrics rather than simply taking a standard one-size-fits-all stance on specific issues. Melican is a governance expert, having served on a number of legal committees related to the topic, including with the American Bar Association, for which he has helped author the last three editions of the Corporate Directors’ Guidebook. Prior to his work at Proxy Governance, he was executive vice president at International Paper Co.
Very interesting and very valuable for my MBA level courses on corporate governance at Lubin School of Business, Pace University. We began offering the first MBA level course on COMPARATIVE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE, nearly four years ago. We now have added a second and third governance related courses and have under consideration both a double major for Accounting and Finance majors and a governance MBA. Your publications are very insightful and offer students a “real world” experience with governance and the important role of Directors.
Some years ago I created, edited and published the first texts available in English on all aspects of governance, company law and related industrial relations/labour relations (stakeholder laws)for the 12 major countries of Western Europe.
Professor John Alan James, Lubin School of Business, Pace University
Good job on a tough assignment. Of course no two people will ever agree on everyone who should or shouldn’t be on the list but the one person who immediately comes to my mind, and the minds of many in any discussion of corporate governance, is Robert A. J. Monks.
Bob was instrumental in creating a fiduciary duty for pension a mutual funds to vote in corporate elections. He found Institutional Shareholder Services (now part of the Risk Metrics Group), which many believe has almost monopoly power in advising institutional investors how to vote. He and Nell Minow (who you did include) then set up the LENS Fund, which paved the way for Relational Investors, GO and others on your list. Along with Nell, he then set up The Corporate Library, which you also include. You include several academics, all worthy, but it was Bob and Nell’s book, Corporate Governance, along with another earlier book by R.I. (Bob) Tricker, that virtually created the academic discipline.
I can’t understand how you missed this giant of the field… or maybe he’s on your list and I missed it?
We appreciate Jim McRitchie’s comment on Robert A.G Monks, and his achievements in the context of US corporate governance. In fact, Bob Monks was recognized by Directorship in our 2008 Corporate Governance Hall of Fame, and deservedly so (along with Bill Donaldson, Mike Oxley, Paul Sarbanes, and Ira Millstein). In addition to Bob’s many accomplishments, he also happens to be a first rate fellow and a delightful individual whom we admire and enjoy immensely.
– The Editors of Directorship
“has clearly helped the nation avoid further financial disaster and put the economy on the path to recovery.”
It’s been a year since your article. Perhaps you should reconsider that statement?
I’m going to have to echo Bill’s comment. While there certainly has been a “recovery” in the financial sector, thanks to a VERY generous Fed, the recovery everywhere else is completely lacking. It seems there are two different worlds, and if you’re not part of the financially connected, then you may not have the same view as the one described in the post.
I am glad to see Bob Monks getting a mention. A very impressive character who studied at both Cambridge AND Harvard and despite his many highly influencial positions has retained a salt of the earth personality. A very imformative post overall, thank you.
So here we are just over a year since this report was issued. Wonder where Barack stands now?