On March 7, 2017, the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware was honored to host Ron O’Hanley, President and CEO of State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), as its John L. Weinberg Distinguished Speaker. SSGA is a recognized leader in corporate governance. He gave an inspiring talk as part of the Center’s 2017 Corporate Governance Symposium. Mr. O’Hanley discussed SSGA’s focus on effective, independent board leadership and his recent call on boards to consider ESG impacts on long-term value creation. He discussed board diversity and SSGA’s call on companies to increase the number of women on their corporate boards, which was announced earlier in the morning and which was also on the eve of International Women’s Day (March 8). Mr. O’Hanley also spoke about the historic comprehensive stewardship and governance principles recently issued by the Investor Stewardship Group.
For more information about the Symposium and Mr. O’Hanley’s address, go HERE.
On May 4, 2017, The Weinberg Center hosted a discussion on blockchain technology, and specifically the State of Delaware’s Blockchain Initiative. Participating in the discussion moderated by the Center’s Associate Director, Ann Mulé, were the following three individuals who are leading the Delaware Blockchain Initiative:
Andrea Tinianow is the Director of Global Delaware and also Director of the Division of Corporate and International Development for the Delaware Department of State. The Delaware Blockchain Initiative was conceived by Global Delaware and Andrea directs the Initiative.
Caitlin Long is the Chairman and President of Symbiont, the market-leading smart contracts platform for institutional uses of distributed ledger technology. Symbiont is partnering with Global Delaware in the Delaware Blockchain Initiative.
Marco Santori is a Partner at Cooley LLP and leads Cooley’s fintech practice, and is an authority in the law of blockchain technology. He is the Legal Ambassador for the Delaware Blockchain Initiative.
For more information about blockchain and the Delaware Blockchain Initiative, together with related materials and the bios of the discussion participants, go here.
On October 6, 2016, the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance hosted “The Climate-Competent Board” Roundtable, which was co-sponsored by the KPMG Board Leadership Center. The topic was very timely as investors, boards and companies are starting to focus more on ESG and sustainability issues. The Directors & Board magazine’s First Quarter 2017 issue included the following articles about the panel: “Climate change and the corporate board: Too hot not to handle?” by Charles M. Elson and Nicholas J. Goossen, and “Panel on climate risk: It’s real, it’s material, it’s a board issue.”
At the John L Weinberg Center’s Corporate Governance Symposium on March 7, 2017, the featured luncheon speaker was Joann S. Lublin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and Management News Editor at The Wall Street Journal. She spoke about her book, Earning It:Hard-Won Lessons from Trailblazing Women at the Top of the Business World, which tells the stories of more than 50 executive women who broke the glass ceiling and reached the top rungs of the corporate ladder in a variety of industries.
For more information about the Symposium, go HERE.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016, 9:30 AM to 12:00 PM @Gore Recital Hall, University of Delaware :
Financial/investing institutions form the bedrock of the U.S.economic system. Without them, the economy can’t grow and our capitalistic system would grind to a halt. However,few believe that our financial/investing institutions work as well as they could. Critics argue that misalignments promote the interests of the financial sector itself above those of society, the real economy and the individual citizen investors whose pensions and savings are entrusted to these institutions. They argue that errant expertise and incentives;gaps in accountability, transparency and governance; poor regulation and a misreading of economics combine to impose a huge stealth tax on individual savings and national economic promise. Further, they say that these structural and governance misalignments create systemic pressure for short termism in the boardroom and within investing institutions.
Stephen Davis, Jon Lukomnik, and David Pitt-Watson, the three authors of What They Do With Your Money: How the Financial System Fails Us and How to Fix It, will be joined by John Bogle, legendary founder of Vanguard, and Jennifer Taub, professor of law,Vermont Law School, for a robust, provocative discussion of how to fix our financial/investing institutions so that they serve individual citizen investors and the real economy. It is the only time all three authors will be together in the U.S. to present.
Among the issues that will be discussed are: How have short-term oriented capital markets, the scores of financial intermediaries, and executive compensation structures both in financial/investing institutions and in our corporations combined to reduce long-term corporate investment in America? What are the consequences of governance gaps in investing institutions? What about the governance structures of pension plans and their plan sponsors? Should there be a shift in the governance paradigm to give individual citizen investors more transparency and more of a voice?The discussion will also showcase potential solutions that range from the narrow and technical, such as potential revisions to the tax law, to the big and ambitious, such as fresh models of governance and transparency for financial/investing institutions and for pension/savings plans.Please join us for a fascinating discussion peering behind the curtain of finance to understand why the capital market works the way it does. And how it can potentially change for the better.
PARTICIPANTS
John C. Bogle, Founder, Vanguard
Stephen M. Davis, Associate Director and Senior Fellow, Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance
Jon Lukomnik, Executive Director, IRRC Institute; and Managing Partner, Sinclair Capital LLC.
David Pitt-Watson, former head of the Hermes shareholder activist funds in Europe, and Executive Fellow of Finance, London Business School
Jennifer Taub, Professor of Law, Vermont Law School
Moderator: Charles M. Elson, director, John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, University of Delaware; Edgar S. Woolard Chair in Corporate Governance; and professor of finance.
DE CLE/CPE credits: DE CLE credits will be provided. CPE credits will be provided by our event partner, Sallie Mae. There is no charge for the program, which includes a complimentary lunch. A book signing will take place after the program and copies of the book will be available for purchase.
On November 1, 2016, the John L. Weinberg Center hosted Stephen Davis, Jon Lukomnik, and David Pitt-Watson, the three authors of What They Do With Your Money: How the Financial System Fails Us and How to Fix It. They were joined by John Bogle, legendary founder of Vanguard, and Jennifer Taub, professor of law, Vermont Law School, for a robust, provocative discussion of how to fix our financial/investing institutions so that they serve individual citizen investors and the real economy.
