There’s abundant evidence that considering a company’s stance on environmental and social concerns, as well as its corporate governance, leads to healthy investment returns...
Apple and Tesla executed stock-splits last month, and their shares soared in value. This double starburst of “alpha” added an astounding $770 Bn to the companies’ market capitalizations – equal to about 2% of the entire value of the U.S. stock market. From just two companies. In less than one month...
Enter COVID-19: For many workers and employers, it is a perfect storm. The crisis has exposed how inequality is a central feature of our economy’s reliance on low-paid service-sector workers, and how underprepared many companies are to deal with risks to their workforce
Comcast Corp.'s stock performance amid the coronavirus pandemic is a tale of two diverging business segments, a dilemma that has attracted the attention of activist investor Trian Fund Management LP. The hedge fund, which describes itself as "a highly engaged shareowner," bought up 20 million shares of Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator. A Trian spokesperson said it believes Comcast's stock is undervalued...
On September 22, 2020 the report “COVID-19 and Inequality: A Test of Corporate Purpose” by KKS Advisors and the Test of Corporate Purpose(TCP) initiative was published. TCP was founded by Mark Tulay...
In 2019, the board of directors of McDonald’s Corp. took the unusual but bold and moral decision to dismiss its CEO Steve Easterbrook after he revealed he’d had a consensual relationship with a co-worker...
Companies have offered benefits to employees, including executive officers, to enable them to continue their work and otherwise to make their lives easier during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the SEC has released additional guidance as to when these benefits constitute perquisites or personal benefits that should be included in executive compensation for proxy disclosure purposes...
A press release on September 22, 2020 announced the publication of “COVID-19 and Inequality: A Test of Corporate Purpose” by KKS Advisorsand the Test of Corporate Purpose (TCP) initiative...
The pandemic and the movement for racial justice have tested corporate pledges to elevate social concerns alongside shareholder interests. A new study finds companies are failing to follow through...
A hardball lawsuit brought by GM against a former director provides a valuable corporate governance reminder of the need to demand accountability for board-level breaches of confidentiality...
Ask most board directors and CEO’s to define cybersecurity and artificial intelligence in a board meeting and have them share their answers and you may well find that their depth of knowledge is too shallow in their duty of care responsibilities...
Cybersecurity oversight is a key fiduciary responsibility for a board of directors and was a significant concern for companies even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced so many organizations to suddenly shift to remote work...
When the Women on Corporate Boards Act (Section 1 of Substitute Senate Bill 6037) became effective on June 11, 2020, Washington became the second state (after California) to affirmatively address gender diversity on public company boards of directors in its corporate statute...
While a director's duties of care and loyalty are not to the CEO, the success of the CEO is critical to the success of the company and its stakeholders...
The proxy process sounded an alarm on working conditions in the meatpacking industry. , Tyson Foods Inc (TSN) On Wednesday, Sept. 16, the SEC was scheduled to hold an open meeting to decide whether to adopt new shareholder resolution filing rules. Late on Tuesday it abruptly, and with no further explanation, postponed the final decision by a week...
Family businesses are often left out of the conversation when it comes to economic recovery and growth, says José Liberti, a clinical professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management...
In the wake of uncertainty about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on public markets, many compensation committees are evaluating how to follow through on incentive compensation for their executive teams...
The chaos caused by Covid-19 this year has left an indelible mark on global economies. Financial markets experienced historic falls in value as the crisis reached a tipping point in March and whole countries were plunged into public lockdowns...
We need not only more disclosure, but also more work in alerting people in general (and students in particular) about the distortive effects of lobbying and the extent to which it takes place...
COVID-19 is proof that pandemics are a real and catastrophic risk for global economies and businesses. This crisis has shown that many businesses are under prepared for such global-scale disruptions, with those that lack agility and resilience most impacted. As businesses prepare for future systemic risks, they can no longer ignore environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues...
With the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, followed by months of Black Lives Matter protests, through to the shooting of Jacob Blake on August 23, leaders in the United States and around the world have finally begun to recognize the racial inequities embedded deep in the systems in which we operate each day: neighborhoods, schools, stores, banks, courts...
In October 2019, for the third consecutive year, the Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance (Staff) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued guidance concerning companies’ ability to exclude shareholder proposals from their proxy statements by addressing the significance of a proposal through a board analysis. That guidance also discussed the ability to exclude proposals on the basis of micromanagement...
Recent protests across the United States and the world have put a magnifying glass on issues of diversity and equity. A new study explores the ways in which these issues go all the way to the top of the corporate ladder...