By Kimberly Gladman, CFA, Ph.D., Director of Research and Risk Analytics The Wall Street Journal reported recently on a fascinating academic study about the effect of gender on accounting oversight. A team led by Susan Parker of the Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business found that small-cap US firms with at least one woman [...]
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Diversity = Downside Protection
December 14, 2012 in Board Diversity, Boards, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
GMI Ratings Launches Global LeaderBoard
December 4, 2012 in Board Diversity, Boards, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, ESG Ratings & Research, GMI Press Releases
Relationship-mapping Tool Deepens Analysis of Corporate Governance and Extra-financial Issuer Risk New York – December 4, 2012 — GMI Ratings, the leading provider of research on environmental, social, governance (ESG) and accounting-related risks affecting the performance of public companies, announced today the launch of Global LeaderBoard (GLB), an online research and data-visualization tool that maps [...]
Global LeaderBoard: Why Should We Care?
December 4, 2012 in Board Diversity, Boards, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, ESG Ratings & Research
By Paul Hodgson – Chief Research Analyst Global LeaderBoard (GLB) is an online research and data-visualization tool designed to deepen the analysis of corporate governance practices that can materially affect issuer risk. GLB maps complex relationship patterns at the individual, organizational, industry and regional levels. Among many other insights, GLB allows subscribers to identify corporate [...]
Director Polling and the Gender Gap
October 24, 2012 in Board Diversity, Boards, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Kimberly Gladman, CFA, Ph.D., Director of Research There’s a lot of discussion these days about political polls that show strong differences between men and women. In the governance world, Heidrick and Struggles and Women Corporate Directors have brought us something similar with their recently released 2012 Board of Directors Survey. The survey illuminates differences [...]
Status Quo at News Corp
October 18, 2012 in Boards, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, Proxy Voting
By Paul Hodgson – Chief Research Analyst It was business as usual at News Corp’s annual meeting. CEO and chairman Rupert Murdoch’s claim that shareholders had rejected the call to split the chairman and CEO roles, had supported executive pay at the firm, rejected calls to eliminate the dual share class structure and to introduce simple [...]
Cemex: Cemented in Debt or the Zambrano Family?
September 14, 2012 in Boards, Daily Viewpoint, Ratings Watch
By Damion Rallis, Ratings Analyst Cemex’s announcement this week that it had fulfilled the minimum acceptance requirements to move forward with its plan to refinance a $7.3 billion loan that was originally due in 2014 has led to short-term share price gains—having risen from a closing price of $7.47 on August 31 to $8.30 on [...]
UK Boards: How Good Are We?
May 30, 2012 in Boards, Daily Viewpoint
By Paul Hodgson – CCO and Senior Research Associate Law Debenture has just published a review of the first year of “compulsory” board evaluations. The 2010 UK Corporate Governance Code requires companies in the FTSE 350 to comply with, or explain why are they are not complying, a regulation that calls for a triennial board [...]
How “Independent” Would You Act?
May 18, 2012 in Boards
By Michelle Lamb – Research Associate According to the April 6th proxy at Northrop Grumman, it seems their new “Lead Independent Director” Lewis Coleman was paid nearly $5.3 million for security measures in 2011 – this includes a “more secure residence”, security protection, $1.5 million for private jet use, and even the associated personal income tax [...]
Major Changes in Store for Italian Boards
May 3, 2012 in Boards, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, Legislation
by Stefan Borghi A law that went into effect in Italy on April 27, 2012 is already having a wide-ranging effect on the corporate governance structure of Italian companies. Article 36 of Decree Law No. 201 of December 6, 2011, converted into Law No. 214/2011 entitled
GMI Ratings Governance Issue | Chesapeake Energy Corp.
May 2, 2012 in Boards, CEO Pay, Corporate Governance, Executive Pay
Investors, who thought they could buy Chesapeake shares on the cheap last week, are seeing even better bargain prices today. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Aubrey McClendon secretly ran a $200 million hedge fund that traded in the same commodities that Chesapeake produces. In reaction to the news, Chesapeake
GMI Ratings Governance Issue | Moody’s Corp.
May 1, 2012 in Boards, CEO Pay, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, GMI News
Is McKinnell the Right Choice? Moody's Corp. deserves credit for recently splitting the roles of Raymond W. McDaniel, who had been its chairman and CEO since April 2005. But the New York ratings agency also elected Henry McKinnell as its new chairman, and he lacks the faultless past that one might have expected in the [...]
Hitachi Strengthens Its Board Again
April 26, 2012 in Boards, Daily Viewpoint, News and Opinions
Hitachi, Ltd continues taking steps toward improving its corporate governance, with a new plan to increase the number of outside directors on its board from four to seven. While Hitachi’s recent changes look good, the company does not yet deserve an A for its practices. Shareholders will vote on the proposal this June, according to [...]
Netflix’s Weak Board Has Hurt Investors
April 25, 2012 in Boards, Daily Viewpoint, News and Opinions, Scandals
Reed Hastings, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Netflix, is an example of a powerful executive whose ability to dominate a board of directors can greatly damage shareholder interests. In its latest nosedive, the Los Gatos, Calif. video subscription company’s stock price has plummeted nearly 17% this week to $88.50 per share as of the market’s [...]
“Shaping the Future” with the Council of Institutional Investors
April 2, 2012 in Boards, Corporate Governance, Disclosure, Environmental Issues, Financial Crisis, Shareholder Activism
The Washington D.C. spring meeting of the Council of Institutional Investors missed the cherry blossoms this year — they were unseasonably early this year and bloomed mid-March. But it did not miss much else, with a full, illuminating, sometimes galvanizing series of presentations and meetings. I was honored to be invited to speak to a [...]
Remember What should I do now I’m not President anymore?
December 15, 2011 in Boards
By Paul Hodgson – CCO and Senior Research Asscociate I expanded this GMI blog post, adding in new commentary and some extra research on your friend and mine Dan Quayle who is on the board of Heckmann Corporation, well-known for its investments in Chinese soft drink companies and waste water treatment systems… don't ask. So [...]
What should I do now I’m not President anymore?
December 1, 2011 in Boards
By Paul Hodgson – CCO and Senior Research Associate Well, we all know about Al Gore (and by now you know I’m talking Vice Presidents as well as Presidents), but what about all the others? Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, George Bush. Well, GMI has data on all that good stuff so it’s a nice simple [...]
An overpowering CEO, sure… but an overpowering director?
November 14, 2011 in Boards, Corporate Governance
By Michelle Lamb – Research Associate Here’s something we don’t hear about every day – a director overpowering the CEO to a company’s detriment? In a Fortune article, William Cohan shed light on a serious power struggle at Merrill Lynch in the months leading up to its firesale to Bank of America. It lays the [...]
To be elected or not to be elected
October 25, 2011 in Boards
By Hoang Nguyen – Ratings Manager News Corporation held its annual general meeting on October 21, 2011 and a significant portion of outside shareholders have lost confidence in the controlling family. Approximately 35% of the votes cast last Friday were withheld from Deputy COO James R. Murdoch, 34% were withheld from former Deputy COO Lachlan [...]
Chelsea Clinton Joins IAC Board
September 27, 2011 in Boards, Corporate Governance
By Kimberly Gladman, CFA, Ph.D., Director of Research and Risk Analytics The Wall St. Journal reported today that Chelsea Clinton has been appointed to the board of internet company IAC/InterActive, whose Chairman, Barry Diller, has been a supporter of campaigns by both her parents. While this seems like a particularly blatant case of choosing a [...]
Yahoo!’s Independent Chairman fires CEO
September 8, 2011 in Boards
By Paul Hodgson – CCO and Senior Research Associate The announcement yesterday that Yahoo!’s CEO Carol Bartz, who has only been with the company since 2009, was fired has a couple of different governance aspects, aspects that are at the forefront of GMI’s commentary and analysis, that are worth discussing. First, the Yahoo! board has [...]