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Jul 14, 2021

Corporate Governance Awards judges announced, with submissions due July 23

Judging panel includes new distinguished members

Corporate Secretary has announced the panel of judges who will be deciding the winners of this year’s Corporate Governance Awards, for which submissions are due by July 23.

Anna Catalano joins the panel this year. She serves as an independent director for public and private corporations and not-for-profit organizations and is currently a member of the boards of Willis Towers Watson, Kraton Corporation, HollyFrontier Corporation, Frontdoor and Appvion. She is a director of the National Association of Corporate Directors’ Corporate Directors Institute.

Joan Conley also joins the panel for this year’s awards. She is at present senior adviser on corporate governance and ESG programs at Nasdaq. In December 2020, after 19 years in the position, she retired as senior vice president and corporate secretary at Nasdaq, where she was responsible for the Nasdaq global corporate governance program, the Nasdaq global ethics and corporate compliance program and the Nasdaq Educational Foundation. Conley was the 2020 winner of Corporate Secretary’s lifetime achievement award.

Catalano and Conley join fellow industry experts who have been members of the panel in previous years:

  • Lucy Fato, executive vice president, general counsel and global head of communications and government affairs, American International Group
  • Matthew Geekie, senior vice president, secretary and general counsel, Graybar
  • Eileen Kamerick, non-executive director, ACV Auctions, Legg Mason Closed End Funds, AIG Funds, Associated Banc-Corp and Hochschild Mining.

The submissions process for the 2021 awards is open, with entries due by Friday, July 23. Entries can be submitted – free of charge – by corporate secretaries, general counsel, compliance officers and other governance officials at companies listed/domiciled in the US, or by vendors or service providers on behalf of their clients.

The winners of the 14th annual Corporate Governance Awards will be announced at a special virtual ceremony on November 11. The categories open for nomination this year are:

Best AGM
Best compliance and ethics program
Best ESG reporting
Best global entity management
*NEW CATEGORY* Best governance around a corporate transaction
Best proxy statement (small cap, mid-cap and large cap)
Best shareholder engagement
Best use of technology
Governance professional of the year (small to mid-cap and large cap)
Governance team of the year (small to mid-cap and large cap)
Rising star

Details of the awards can be found here. Entries can be submitted using an online form, which also includes information about the entry guidelines and category criteria. The deadline for submitting entries is midnight on Friday, July 23, 2021.

The full short lists will be released in mid-October, with those on the short lists being informed in the weeks before.

Details of last year’s awards and winners can be found here.

Ben Maiden

Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large of Governance Intelligence, an IR Media publication, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. Ben was previously managing editor of Compliance Reporter, covering regulatory and compliance...