Directors, and those who want to become directors, require a diverse array of tools and resources, from recruiting information to Directors & Officers insurance to the latest thought leadership on best practices for corporate boards. The sites and services presented here include some of the best online portals.
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Ranking of America’s leading companies according to their governance capacity.
Provides global research coverage of the environmental, social, governance and accounting-related risks affecting the performance of public companies.
A database of public and private companies categorized by the gender composition of their boards.
Ranking America’s Largest Corporations by the Governance Capacity of their Boards – 2013 Edition – A uniquely objective perspective regarding the governance capacity of America’s largest corporations.
Supports executives, boards of directors, and others active in the governance by providing them with resources pertaining to current boardroom issues and governance trends.
Provider of corporate governance solutions for asset owners, hedge funds, and asset service providers.
Provider of governance services that support engagement among institutional investors and corporations through its research, proxy vote management and technology platforms.
Provides governance reviews to perform an analysis of your board’s oversight processes and drivers. NACD’s faculty of sitting board members and renowned subject-matter experts benchmark and compare your board’s oversight practices with NACD’s leading practices and those of peer organizations.
An overview of D&O liability insurance
Priya Cherian Huskins explains what is an Indemnification Agreement and why a Director needs one.
D&O Insurance Whitepaper February 2015
A blog that monitors, curates and summarizes issues as they arise in the areas of D&O liability, insurance, and corporate governance.
A periodic journal containing items of interest from the world of directors and officers liability, with occasional commentary.
Enlight provides independent governance and financial data, updated and visualized in real time for corporate directors, executives, advisors and investors. This software delivers relevant, timely and independent information to boards, executives, advisors and investors—to not only improve strategic decision-making, but also to enhance the quality of corporate governance.
Diligent Boardbooks A board portal that provides immediate access to time-sensitive and confidential company information, along with the tools to more effectively review materials and discuss and vote on key issues.
Nasdaq Directors Desk A state of the art board portal enabling corporate officers to securely access sensitive information & projects electronically.
BoardVantage MeetX automates the dissemination of sensitive information and captures complex meeting process online.
Director Access Director Access is a secure board portal that provides a convenient, online platform for board members and executives.
Passageways OnBoard OnBoard was built so your Board members and officers receive their board books on time, anywhere, without hassle, without chasing down couriered paper books.
Women are still largely under-represented on corporate boards globally, and progress to change this trend continues to be slow. Our 6th edition of our Women in the Boardroom report outlines efforts and progress made in over 60 countries to increase the number of women occupying board seats. The report also features perspectives of three non-executive directors from Australia, Spain and the US into how boardroom diversity is progressing in their parts of the world.
Egon Zehnder has tracked gender and international diversity on boards around the world for the past 14 years. With the release of their 2018 report, Global Board Diversity Tracker: Who’s Really on Board?, they mark their most comprehensive effort yet.
The conclusion is simple: Boardroom diversity matters because it leads to better corporate outcomes. Yet for all of the attention given to the topic, improvement remains incremental — and that is unacceptable. To make a difference, boards must abandon tokenism and hire a critical mass of at least three women. That approach must be directed and supported from the very top.
The 2018–2019 NACD Public Company Governance Survey presents findings from the annual questionnaire. This report details responses from more than 500 public-company directors. Findings from the private company governance survey are published separately. The first section of this publication presents key findings from our analysis of the data. The second section is a chart-based data appendix containing descriptive statistics and frequencies for all questions in the survey with aggregate responses to questions covering the most critical board leadership and governance topics. Results come from the more than 80 survey questions. Analysis derived from the Russell 3000 was provided by Main Data Group.
EY has tracked board structures since 2013, examining how S&P 500 companies are using board committee structure to address oversight needs. This report is based on a review of the 418 proxy statements filed as of 15 May 2018. The same set of companies in 2018 and 2013 were examined to provide consistency in the review.
Every year, the Women On Boards team of researchers measures the gender makeup of the active companies on the 2010 Fortune 1000 list. Women On Boards report their findings in the 2020 Gender Diversity Index (GDI) and compare progress on this same group of companies from one year to the next looking at company size, state and sector.
In 2016, Fortune 500 companies filled 421 vacant or newly created board seats with non-executive directors. That represents a new high as recorded by the Board Monitor, Heidrick & Struggles’ annual study of board composition, experience, turnover, and diversity.
Women are still largely under-represented on corporate boards globally, despite continued efforts to improve boardroom gender diversity. The 5th edition of the Women in the Boardroom report outlines efforts in over 60 countries to increase the number of women occupying board seats.
Slow progress in adding more women to boards has dominated the conversation. But tips from standout companies are more likely to inspire others to take firmer action.
“Refreshment” is among the most hotly-debated topics across U.S. boardrooms and within the broader corporate governance community. While shareholders, directors, and other market constituents vary as to the reasons for their refreshment concerns, they typically include snail-paced board turnover, sky-rocketing tenures, stagnant skillsets and deficient diversity.
Despite modest gains, women and minorities see little change in representation on Fortune 500 boards
This multi-year study published by the Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD), in collaboration with Deloitte for the 2016 census, provides powerful metrics on the slow change of diversity in the boardroom, and may help to guide corporations and advocates toward future improvements in minority and women board participation.
Annually, more than a thousand directors and executives participate in the NACD Public Company Governance Survey. They find value in benchmarking their approach in areas such as board structure, composition, education, recruitment, and evaluation year over year, and they use the results to identify opportunities for improvement and validate board priorities for the coming year.
This article summarizes the results of the 2016 Global Board of Directors from Survey Spencer Stuart and WomenCorporateDirectors Foundation. 4000+ directors reveal common boardroom attitudes and processes.
This edition of the Directors’ Alert: Ingredients for success: Striking the right balance, highlights some of key challenges and explores potential responses that can be taken to address some of the top issues likely to face boards in 2016.
In this context, Spencer Stuart, the WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD) Foundation, Professor Boris Groysberg and doctoral candidate Yo-Jud Cheng of Harvard Business School and researcher Deborah Bell partnered together on the 2016 Global Board of Directors Survey, one of the most comprehensive surveys of corporate directors around the world.
Despite Fortune 500 boards filling a record number of seats with independent directors in 2015, diversity among new directors stalled. Find out the latest trends in boardroom composition, experience, and turnover in the 2016 Board Monitor.
In this context, This year Harvey Nash set out to uncover the impact of new developments with its second annual research on non-executive directors and chairs and answering the following questions: Have boards moved with the changing dynamics? Have they diversified their base of expertise for new challenges? Are appointment procedures more appropriately robust? Have boardrooms kept pace with the increasing demands of digitisation? Which measures should be taken to help restore public faith in the contribution business makes to society?
The disruptive impact of technology creates both challenges and opportunities for organisations and technology professionals. Innovation is happening fast, but as technology becomes increasingly influential, the risks also grow. All of this has an impact on careers. New skills are required, different from even five years ago. And the career path of technologists is evolving as the role increasingly focuses on highly visible, revenue-generating projects. These changes, and more, are outlined throughout this report, representing the wave that today’s technology professional has to quickly learn to ride.
This companion supplement to the Fenwick survey, Corporate Governance Practices and Trends: A Comparison of Large Public Companies and Silicon Valley Companies, provides insight into significant developments related to stockholder voting at annual meetings in the 2015 proxy season, among the technology and life sciences companies included in the Silicon Valley 150 Index (SV 150), as well as the public companies in other industries included in the Bay Area 25 Index (BA 25).
In an era of increased efforts to diversify corporate boards, it is tempting to think that women of color would be highly sought after. But this isn’t the case.
A path-finding piece of research that has tracked the experiences of men and women who are seeking non-executive directorships on corporate boards in the UK.
The United States lags many countries with advanced economies in this category, including those without government quotas.
We found that female board representation is positively related to accounting returns and that this relationship is more positive in countries with stronger shareholder protections.
An examination of the progress of women corporate directors by state, sector & size of company from 2011-2014.
In Deloitte’s first version, back in 2011, they struggled to find 13 countries with diversity legislation or significant programs. Today, to say they have an embarrassment of riches is an understatement: Deloitte is proud to provide details on 49 countries around the world.
There is a moral imperative to get more women on the boards of companies, but what about their financial performance? Do companies with diverse boards really perform better than those run purely by men, which currently dominate the corporate landscape? This study shows the answer is yes: they perform better. Research from the Kellogg School of Management and the Scientific American has shown how heterogeneity can boost decision making. These bodies of work were the catalyst for Grant Thornton to start exploring the impact of diverse boards – to understand the value of diversity in terms of financial performance.
Research from HBR suggests that directors believe that boards are falling short and simply put they’re just not working. Even with a host of guidelines from independent watchdogs such as the International Corporate Governance Network, the findings show that most boards aren’t delivering on their core mission: providing strong oversight and strategic support for management’s efforts to create long-term value.
The accepted wisdom — that a lawyer who becomes a corporate director has a fool for a client — is outdated. The benefits of lawyer-directors in today’s world significantly outweigh the costs. Beyond monitoring, they help manage litigation and regulation, as well as structure compensation to align CEO and shareholder interests. The results have been an average 9.5 percent increase in firm value and an almost doubling in the percentage of public companies with lawyer-directors.
This report is an in-depth profile of the boards and directors governing the top 150 public companies in technology in the Silicon Valley (the SV150) based on the list created by the San Jose Mercury News.
This report highlights the necessity for boards to respond to evolving global governance demands in three areas: Board composition, with an emphasis on geographic diversity and international experience; Board processes, including the importance of well-planned agenda development, site visits, and the flow of information into the boardroom; and Directors’ individual capacities and expertise, especially an expanded time commitment and a keen sensitivity to cultural differences.
This report examines the representation of women on boards of U.S. publicly-traded companies and factors that may affect it and selected stakeholders’ views on strategies for increasing representation of women on corporate boards. GAO analyzed a dataset of board directors at companies in the S&P 1500 from 1997 through 2014; and conducted interviews with a nongeneralizable sample of 19 stakeholders including CEOs, board directors, and investors. GAO selected stakeholders to reflect a range of experiences, among various factors. GAO also reviewed existing literature and relevant federal laws and regulations.
Through analysis of 1,491 biotechnology companies research demonstrated that biotechnology leadership is still heavily male-dominated, with 10 men for every woman in biotech boardrooms and over 50% of all biotechs have exclusively male boards.
Findings show that strategy tops the list of 2015 board priorities, that there is a slight decline in companies approached by a shareholder activist, and that women on boards is increasing, among others.
If prominent corporations adopt a target of recruiting women in one of every two board seat openings due to normal retirements and existing female seats are retained, CED believes that 30% participation would likely occur by 2018.
The Catalyst Research Center for Equity in Business Leadership examines and documents workforce demographics and their impact on employees, companies, communities, and society.
Key statistical data for all Russell 3000 companies headquartered in the US.
Board diversity tends to rise notably when firms use a competency-based approach for recruiting and assessing potential directors.
What’s important to investors, and what do they expect of corporate directors?
Significant progress has been made in numerous areas with an overall increase in the percentage of board seats filled by women and a decrease in the companies with no female directors. The data also shows that, while Texas is still behind the national average, the gap is quickly closing.
This article seeks to evaluate the case for racial, ethnic, and gender diversity on corporate boards of directors in light of competing research findings.
For five years H&S has sought to capture key characteristics of newly elected independent directors of Fortune 500 companies, track that data from quarter to quarter and year to year, and provide a springboard for discussion of board composition, diversity, and governance. Here is what that data has to tells about trends in director appointments over the past half-decade.
The 29th edition of this venerable publication continues the tradition of examining the latest data and trends in board composition, board practices and director compensation among S&P 500 companies.
The Conference Board, The Institute of Executive Development, and the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University surveyed board members to see how well corporate directors know the senior executives one level below the CEO. Results revealed that, while many interact with senior executives periodically in a boardroom setting, most directors don’t have extensive exposure to them outside of the boardroom nor do they have detailed knowledge about their skills, capabilities, and performance.
Today’s General Counsel play an increasingly important role in shaping company strategy and protecting the bottom line, according to results of a recent survey of directors. This survey examines the changing role of General Counsel and perceptions from business leaders. It offers a snapshot of General Counsel in the C-Suite and in the boardroom.
The accepted wisdom — that a lawyer who becomes a corporate director has a fool for a client — is outdated. The benefits of lawyer-directors in today’s world significantly outweigh the costs. Beyond monitoring, they help manage litigation and regulation, as well as structure compensation to align CEO and shareholder interests. The results have been an average 9.5 percent increase in firm value and an almost doubling in the percentage of public companies with lawyer-directors.
Corporate boardrooms in Chicago are more gender diverse compared to some major cities, like Los Angeles.
A broad and detailed assessment of global progress on gender diversity among corporate directors.
A diverse, well-rounded board of directors can provide long-term perspective to balance management’s focus on the day to day as well as the guidance and discipline needed to balance growth and manage risk.
An examination of the biographies and professional experiences of the female directors of Fortune 250 companies. How have pathways for women changed? Are the opportunities and obstacles today the same or different?
America is falling behind other nations in promoting women to the highest levels of corporate leadership.
A look at the impact of gender diversity from a global perspective by analyzing the performance of close to 2,400 companies with and without women board members from 2005 onward.
This survey from Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance and Heidrick & Struggles has uncovered surprises about who makes the best board directors: it’s not necessarily the current CEOs that most companies seek out.
Directors Quarterly (April 2020)
KPMG
Board Governance Quarterly
Spencer Stuart
David Larcker and Brian Tayan
Pearson Education
Corporate Law Committee
American Bar Association
Adrian Cadbury
University Press
David Rhodes, Colin Carter, and Stephen Sutherland
BCG.Perspectives
Evan Harvey, Director of Corporate Responsibility at Nasdaq joins host TK Kerstetter
Boardroom Resources, LLC
Mike Mannor, Adam Wowak, Viva Ona Bartkus and Luis R. Gomez-Mejia
Harvard Business Review
Michael Brittian, Partner with Meridian Compensation Partners joins host TK Kerstetter
Boardroom Resources, LLC
Darrell Freeman, Lead Director for AAC Holdings Inc., joins host TK Kerstetter
Boardroom Resources, LLC
Kevin LaCroix
The D&O Dairy
Hugo Sarrazin and Paul Willmott
McKinsey Quarterly
Alan Guarino, Compensation Chair, The Chefs’ Warehouse, joins host TK Kerstetter
Boardroom Resources, LLC
Julie Hembrock Daum, Spencer Stuart, and Susan Stautberg, Women Corporate Directors Foundation
Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation Forum
Adam C. Uzialko
News Daily