When the SEC’s notice and access rule – the requirement to post proxy and other annual meeting materials online and send hard copies only upon request – went into effect (on a voluntary basis) last July, a frenzy of speculation followed on whether retail shareholders would continue to vote if they were no longer receiving hardcopy mailing forms. Amid confusion about the fulfillment process, cost savings and achieving quorum, only a handful of companies chose th...
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Let’s get the statistical shocker out of the way. Only about half of companies that should have a CEO succession plan in place do, according to new research by the Center for Board Leadership with Mercer Delta Consulting. The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) dittos that finding. The 2007 Public Governance Report from NACD shows that 93 percent of directors believe succession planning is very important, but only half say their company is doing anyt...
As both economic and political spotlights shine across the corporate landscape in this highly charged election year, the 2008 proxy season is likely to see a renewed, stronger focus on the compensation of top executives. And helping to crystallize the topic is the so-called ‘say on pay’ proposal, which has increasingly garnered shareholder support. Shareholder proposals on the topic received in excess of 40 percent support at some two dozen annual meetings during...
Mexican homebuilder Homex has set a benchmark in corporate governance standards for its peers by becoming the first Mexican company to be elected to membership of the Companies Circle of the Latin American Corporate Governance Roundtable (LACGR), an organization sponsored by the International Finance Corporation and the organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Companies Circle has gained international recognition for bringing together Latin A...
The term ‘pretext’ is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as ‘that which is put forward to conceal a true purpose or object; an ostensible reason; the misleading appearance or behavior assumed with this intention.’ And although the word ‘pretexting’ does not officially exist, the use of the term has become commonplace in the business world, primarily from its extensive use in the media after the Hewlett-Packard scandal. The intense, and often bitter, infighting ...
By the time you read this, the Iowa caucus will have been held and probably the New Hampshire primary, and maybe even a bunch of other early primaries, and we’ll all be a giant step closer to knowing who are going to be the Democratic and Republican nominees for president.
But before we all start playing the ‘Things Will Be Different When Hillary-Rudy-Mitt-Obama-Edwards-McCain is President’ game, let’s remember that the election is ten months away, and...
Having trouble sleeping? Here are four words that might help to get you snoozing: eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL. For those of you who have been living on another planet and have no idea what I’m referring to, the name pertains to a reporting method that, if you believe its supporters, will revolutionize the way we transmit company information.
Despite all the well-documented benefits of XBRL, its development has been excruciatingly slow...
Can glass once broken be reassembled? That is the question that is keeping executives up late in San Francisco, where proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis is based, and also in Ontario, where its new corporate owners are headquartered. But just a year ago, none of this was expected, all of it would have seemed impossible.
Talk about topsy-turvy. Just ten months after the proxy voting advisor, Glass Lewis, was bought by China-based financial information firm Xinhua ...
When the SEC talks, corporations had better listen, but one message many companies seem to be missing lately is 10b5-1 plans that allow executives to safely trade their companies’ stock, may be trouble. Apparently executives can – and possibly do – benefit from insider trading under protective cover. The SEC is beginning to change its opinion on such plans and is looking into the practice for evidence of abuse.
Perhaps SEC investigators will find problem...
Last December’s changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure drastically reinterpreted the discovery and handling of electronic records in federal courts. The repercussions have been particularly hard on records managers, who, often in tandem with IT departments, are tasked with developing a strategy for storing and deleting a whole new area of records. The major complication has to do with the addition of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) to the category ...
