Bloomberg High Frequency Trading
January 19, 2012 – New York, NY

Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness – The Volcker Rule: Measuring the Impact on Business event and a Regulatory Engagement: Corporate Treasurer Fly-in
January 24 – Washington, DC

Bloomberg Sovereign Debt Conference
January 24 – New York, NY

The Conference Board – Diversity and Inclusion New Leaders Academy
January 31-February 1, 2012 – Munich

Bloomberg China Conference
February 1 – New York, NY

Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals – Essentials Seminar 2012
February 1-3, 2012 – Orlando, FL

Money Market Fund Reform
February 8, 2012 – Washington, DC

NACD’s Quarterly Environment Update
February 9, 2012 – Online

The Conference Board – Talent Management Strategies Conference
February 9-10, 2012 – New York, NY
February 29-March 1, 2012 – San Diego, CA

NACD – When an Activist Investor Comes Calling
February 15, 2012 – Atlanta, GA

Bloomberg Portfolio Manager Mash-up
February 16, 2012 – New York, NY

The Conference Board – Employee Health Care Conference
March 1-2, 2012 – New York, NY
March 29-30, 2012 – San Diego, CA

NACD Director Professionalism – The Master Class
March 12-13, 2012 – Scottsdale, AZ
April 26-27, 2012 – Charlotte, NC
August 20-12, 2012 – Laguna Beach, CA
December 5-6, 2012 – Naples, FL

NACD – Navigating Challenges Faced By a Private Company Chairman
March 21, 2012 – Atlanta, GA

Bloomberg Sovereign Debt Conference
March 22, 2012 – Frankfurt, Germany

The Conference Board – Executive Coaching Conference
March 27-28, 2012 – New York, NY

6th Annual Capital Markets Summit
March 28, 2012 – Washington, DC

National Association of Manufacturers 2012 Annual Public Affairs Conference
April 1-3, 2012 – Aventura, FL

Council of Institutional Investors – 2012 Spring Meeting
April 1-3, 2012 – Washington, DC

The Conference Board – Diversity & Inclusion Management Seminars
April 4-5, 2012- New York, NY

Bloomberg Doha Conference
April 16-17, 2012 – Doha, Qatar

The Conference Board – Social Media in HR Seminar
April 17-18, 2012 – New York, NY

NACD – The Roles and Challenges of the Lead Director
April 18, 2012 – Atlanta, GA

The Conference Board – Women’s Leadership Conference
April 19-20, 2012 – New York, NY

NACD Director Professionalism
April 23-24, 2012 – Charlotte, NC
August 16-17, 2012 – Dana Point, CA
November 29-30, 2012 – Washington, DC

Bloomberg Latin America Investing Conference
April 26, 2012 – New York, NY

Bloomberg Washington Summit
May 1, 2012 – Washington, DC

The Conference Board – Executive Compensation Conference
May 8-9, 2012 – Chicago, IL
June 5-6, 2012 – New York, NY

Bloomberg Canada Economic Summit
May 8, 2012 – Toronto, Canada

Bloomberg Enterprise Technology Summit
May 10, 2012 – New York, NY

The Conference Board – Corporate Political Spending
May 15, 2012 – Washington, DC

The Conference Board – Business Ethics and Compliance Conference
May 16-17, 2012 – Chicago, IL

The Conference Board – Leadership Development Conference
May 17-18, 2012 – New York, NY
June 7-8, 2012 – San Diego, CA

Bloomberg Ireland Economic Summit
May 17, 2012 – Dublin, Ireland

National Association of Manufacturing Summit
June 6-7, 2012 – Washington, DC

Bloomberg State & Municipal Finance
June 7, 2012 – Chicago, IL

Bloomberg Asset Management Summit
June 14, 2012 – Boston, MA

Stanford Rock Center for Corporate Governance – 18th Annual Directors’ College 2012
June 24-26, 2012 – Stanford Law School

The Conference Board – Corporate Diversity and Inclusion Conference
June 27-28, 2012 – Chicago, IL

Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals 2012 National Conference
July 11-14 – Washington, DC

Stanford Rock Center for Corporate Governance – Fiduciary College 2012
July 23-25, 2012 – Stanford Law School

Council of Institutional Investors – 2012 Fall Meeting
October 3-5, 2012 – Seattle, WA

NACD Board Leadership Conference 2012
October 14-16, 2012
National Harbor, MD

Kenneth Daly

Over the past year, much has been said about the impact that Dodd-Frank will have on banks and other financial institutions, but the legislation goes far beyond Wall Street, bringing us mandates for say on pay, bounties for whistleblowers, and the likely advent of proxy access.

This commentary was originally published as an op-ed in The Hill.

While reasonable minds may debate the value of these rules, there is no debate about the importance of learning what they mean for boards. Dodd-Frank has put director education in the spotlight more than ever. NACD is ready for the challenge, having focused on building the strongest boards and strongest companies for more than thirty years. Every successful director education program, regardless of the company’s type, size or industry, should have a single goal in mind: to develop highly engaged, well-prepared corporate directors who can fulfill their responsibilities to the company, its investors, and its employees and other stakeholders.

As board members, we want to promote stronger directors. As company leaders, we want to promote stronger companies. And as taxpayers with a vested interest in America’s economic growth, we want to promote a strong economy. We believe that these three groups are inextricably linked. NACD has led the way in promoting high-quality director education to make this vision a reality.

To achieve this, we believe that director education programs should meet specific criteria:

• Independence. First, the administrator of the program must be credible and independent, free from bias and self-interest. As directors are expected to be an independent counterweight to the company’s management, so too should be the program that trains them.
• Relevance. Second, the program should be relevant. To be effective, a program should ensure directors maximize awareness of the current environment, implications for boards and trends in leading boardroom practices. These programs should, first and foremost, seek to produce trained, qualified, knowledgeable directors, capable of being informed advocates for the company’s best interests.
• Authority. Finally, the program, whether or not it issues a credit or certificate, should be authoritative. Program quality is only as valuable as its issuer. Directors who undergo NACD’s director education programs, for example, benefit from our 30-plus years of experience, and in return, the credentials they receive carry the weight of our organization.

All of our educational resources are developed with the goal of producing leading, well-prepared directors of the highest quality, and everyone who comes out of our programs is a testament to the materials we offer. We take pride in our ability to produce and implement programs that bring real value to board members, in turn bringing value to everyone involved with the company.

As a result of the critical role that directors play in their companies and in the larger economy, director education programs can and should play a key role on every board.  NACD has been providing these services to directors, board members, and investors throughout our history, and especially given this new post-Dodd-Frank environment, well-educated and highly trained directors are crucial to maintain stability and growth in these tenuous economic times.

As the dust from this legislation continues to settle, and as both sides of the aisle continue the debate in Washington, one thing is guaranteed to remain constant: NACD will continue to provide the true gold standard in director education.

Ken Daly is the president and CEO of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).

This partnership reinforces the fact that NACD provides the broadest inventory of premium director education and board development services available. After conducting its due diligence, NASDAQ OMX determined that partnering with NACD, and encouraging its issuers to engage with NACD, was the most effective and efficient path to bolster its suite of corporate governance services. As performance requirements and expectations of boards and directors are at all-time highs, this partnership reinforces the importance of all directors to be professionally committed to continuous education.

In order to maximize interest and engagement, boards and directors of NASDAQ OMX-listed companies will receive preferred pricing to become Full Board Members of NACD, utilize NACD’s Board Advisory Services, and attend NACD’s Annual Conference and NACD Directorship Forums. NACD and NASDAQ OMX will collaborate to optimize all relevant media and channels to maximize the strategic value of this partnership.

Additionally, clients of NASDAQ OMX’s Directors Desk online board portal can integrate select content from NACD’s proprietary database to optimize their Director Desk experience and value.

We look forward to our members and prospective members taking advantage of these opportunities. Many thanks to all of our current members who help us make a difference.

Bill White told more than 100 directors at NACD’s Director Professionalism course that he wishes compensation committees could be renamed. “I’d like to see them known as contribution or motivation committees” he said. Bill is an experienced public and private company director and former Bell and Howell Chairman and CEO.

In addition to his board service, Bill also teaches applied psychology at Northwestern University in Chicago. “People work best when they love what they do and believe it matters” said Bill “Pay is only one part of what makes them turn up and work hard. The emphasis on salary for executives has not been helpful in recent times. Whatever your committee is called, spend more time coming up with innovative incentives and rewards and focus beyond the $$$.”

Bill has it right, I think. I wasn’t happy in the best-paid job I ever held. I understood the mission, but I wasn’t very clear about how I could contribute. I never quite believed what I heard myself saying to my team, partners and customers. I didn’t trust my boss. (This turned out to be good thinking—he later went to jail for taking huge backhanders from a soft toy manufacturer and distributor in the far east—a giant fake fur fraud case. Real Hong Kong Phooey.) I left after a year and my salary has gently declined while my job satisfaction has risen ever since.

When Pay Czar Ken Feinberg imposed his salary cap on executives from TARP companies, many board members feared key executives would leave. Bill reported that in fact 87% were still in place “Where would they go?” he said. Of course, there have been loopholes in the salary rules imposed by the Special Master for Executive Compensation that will mean that many of these bail-out business leaders are hardly hurting but, nonetheless, people at the pinnacle of their executive careers are often somewhat siloed in their own industry niche and have to consider many factors beyond compensation when they are eyeing up current competitors as future employers. For people at any level in any organization location, culture, autonomy, ability to innovate, empathetic, excellent support and many other factors are vital to job satisfaction and career success. Of course the money is important too—NACD’s CEO Ken Daly should not take this posting too, too seriously as year-end and bonus time approaches…

The NACD Directorship Forum annual program is ideal for executives and board directors of the world’s leading companies eager to participate in a series of high level discussions on today’s most compelling topics.

The Diamond Standard

Robert E. Diamond, Jr., president of Barclays PLC, the 2nd largest financial services firm in the world, will address the NACD Directorship Forum as our CEO keynote. Hear his views on Barclays Capital’s rise to the top tier of global investment banking, financial reform and the current and future state of financial services.

The State of the Markets

In a conversation with Jeff Cunningham, chairman and editorial director of NACD Directorship, Duncan Niederauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext and a member of its board and management committee, will address how legislation and regulation are taking shape globally to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis. He will also speak to:

* Global consolidation of stock exchanges
* Effects of a proposed transaction tax
* Strength of equity vs. debt markets
* IPO activity here and abroad

Inside the SEC

Led by SEC Deputy Director for Legal and Regulatory Policy, Brian Breheny and former SEC chairman (’01-’03) Harvey Pitt, who will be joined by former SEC commissioners Annette Nazareth, Paul Atkins and Richard Roberts, these sessions will examine the SEC’s new regulatory agenda under Chairman Mary Schapiro and the implications for boards.

Peer Exchange Roundtables

More than 100 leading directors will gather at The NACD Directorship Forum to discuss every major area of board responsibility, facilitated by leading global experts on boardroom issues. Each member will have an opportunity to pose questions and react to positions. There will be two consecutive sessions and directors can choose from the following topics

Sessions

The NACD Directorship Forum panel sessions and keynotes will cover the following topics :

• The New SEC Mandates
• The Architecture of Risk
• Director Liability and Litigation
• Challenges of the Global Chief Executive
• Choose Your Crisis
• Emerging Markets Update
• How to Meet the Boardroom Challenges Through Recruitment and Motivation
• Media and the Board

Format

Our stimulating format features panels, roundtables, keynote speeches, and more intimate peer-exchange sessions on the most critical global boardroom issues including: the geopolitical and economic outlook, Capitol Hill’s influence in the boardroom, an emerging market update on China, accounting and compensation regulations, the new experience requirements for directors, and the most effective risk-management strategies.

Accreditation

If you hold the NACD Certificate of Director Education designation, you will receive 8 CDE credits for your participation. Our Forums bring directors together with chief executives and other C-suite officers, corporate secretaries, general counsels, and corporate governance professionals for engaging, insightful, and informed interactions.

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