Directorship Live

The Ex-Men: Former SEC chairmen discuss striking the right regulatory balance and what the rise of alternative investments means for the oversight of the financial markets.

Two prominent members of the corporate legal system, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware Myron Steele and Martin Lipton of Wachtell Lipton, discuss the role of the courts in corporate governance.

David N. Swinford, president of Pearl Meyer & Partners, discusses compensation best practices with Alison A. Winter, compensation committee chairperson at Nordstrom; Josh Weston, honorary chairman , Automatic Data Processing and a director of Russ Berrie & Co., Gentiva Health Services, and J. Crew; and Debra Perry, director at MBIA and Conseco.

In Part 2 of the series, the group discuss how the change in dynamic tension between management and the compensation committee has changed the compensation process.

In Part 3 of the series the group contemplates the future of the compensation committee with heightened regulatory intervention, like Barney Frank's bill on shareholder access.

In Part 4 of the discussion David, Alison and Debra talk about important business subjectives, other than financial performance, relating to stakeholders' compensation.

Part 5 poses the question of ethics. How important is it that management behaves ethically? Is how results are achieved as important as what results are achieved?

Part 6 focuses on balancing the compensation package with short term and long term compensation and how this forces management to make the right sacrifices along the way.

In Part 7 of the conversation, the group agrees that every compensation committee should have the ability to reserve discretion, rather than rely strictly on numbers.

Michael Capellas on why a CEO must learn to trust his instincts.