Corporate Board articles from November 2005

Corporate Board archives from November 2005

Ethics, corporations and risk.
November 1, 2005... The past few years of massive governance reforms have brought common-sense benefits to business ethics. However, they also inflict a high price in time, corporate resources, and our willingness to take risks. The latter could be the most...

Boardroom lessons from The Disney/Ovitz case.
November 1, 2005... The August decision by the Delaware Chancery Court on the The Walt Disney Company's board hiring (and firing) of Michael Ovitz is a landmark in governance law. Despite finding Disney Chair Michael Eisner overbearing with the board, the...

Governance at controlled public companies.
November 1, 2005... Controlled companies, those with strong single investor or family ownership, would seem low on the list of prospects for any board candidate that wants to be an active, dynamic director. In truth, the authors find public, controlled company...

Audit committee effectiveness.(Reprint)
November 1, 2005... Audit committees have suddenly evolved from the board's sleepiest domain to become a highly responsible working body, facing today's strictest governance standards. Yet audit committees remain grounded in an amateur, part-time design that is...

Fraud traps for the unwary.
November 1, 2005... Are you committing board fraud? Of course not, is your immediate response. Yet, according to SEC policy, directors may be guilty of fraud for corporate actions they not only never approved, but never knew about. Missing a danger "red flag" may...

Corporate accountants are going "back to basics.".(Audit)
November 1, 2005... Corporate governance mandates and an emphasis on ethics and accurate financial reporting have led to heightened scrutiny and a back-to-basics approach in the accounting profession. This is just one trend identified in Next Generation...

Automating compliance and control are new priorities.(Audit)
November 1, 2005... Senior finance executives say that automating compliance and control environments is a priority in year two of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, according to a CFO Research Services survey conducted on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Virsa...

Internal audit must change to meet new demands.(Audit)
November 1, 2005... Internal audit answered corporate America's call for help like no other business function during the first year of compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, according to a report by Deloitte and Touche. Without internal audit's business process...

Lead directors are now the rule, but fewer CEOs wish to serve on boards.(Boardroom Practice)
November 1, 2005... Spencer Stuart has released the 20th Spencer Stuart Board Index (SSBI) study of boards of directors in the S&P 500. The SSBI shows three significant findings: * Progress has been made on corporate governance changes mandated by the...

Director pay and workloads are growing.(Compensation & Recruitment)
November 1, 2005... Times have changed quite dramatically for directors of public U.S. companies, a William M. Mercer study finds. Directors spend more time and effort responding to the increased demands of shareholders and regulators, feel an increase in their...

Supply chain risks pose a major corporate threat.(Strategy & Finance)
November 1, 2005... An FM Global study of financial executives at the world's top companies finds supply chain risks pose the top threat to companies' revenue. At the same time, close to half of all respondents say risks associated with globalization and...

CEOs are more willing to take on risks.(Strategy & Finance)
November 1, 2005... Increasing investment in technology, restructuring pricing and making domestic acquisitions are high-risk choices chief executive officers are willing to make, according to a survey of U.S. business leaders by Grant Thornton LLP. Leaders are...

Ten years ago in The Corporate Board.(Retrospectives)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... "Corporacy" is a term relating to the private sector, meaning corporate "bureaucrats running corporations for their own good and the shareholder be damned." Fortunately, the competitive marketplace punishes companies that become "corpocracies."...

Five years ago in The Corporate Board.(Retrospectives)
November 1, 2005... The best [board chairs] use persuasion, integrity, the power of ideas and a great deal of diplomacy. They have to respect the accomplishments of this diverse set of people [the board], and they draw on that portfolio to reach creative...

Books received.(Bibliography)
November 1, 2005... Chairing the Board. By John Harper. Kogan Page. $60. A useful update of Harper's 2000 book on the strategic role of chairing a corporate board. Though the focus here is on British corporations, there is still valuable advice. The Perfect...

Articles & speeches.(Spoken & Written)
November 1, 2005... Sarbanes-Oxley should be interpreted by business leaders as the American people's condemnation of the behavior of the business community at large. [Those who believe in] the "few rotten eggs" scenario are misleading themselves. I'm really,...

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has elected to its board Karin Eastham, executive vice president, chief operating officer and a member of the Board of Trustees of The Burnham Institute.

Applied Materials, Inc.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Applied Materials, Inc. has elected to its board Thomas Iannotti, senior vice president and general manager at Hewlett-Packard Company, and Charles Y. S. Liu, former managing director of Lazard Asia Ltd.

Atmos Energy Corporation.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Atmos Energy Corporation has elected to its board Stephen R. Springer, former vice president of Williams Field Services Company.

Battelle Memorial Institute.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Battelle Memorial Institute has elected to its board Vicky A. Bailey, partner at Johnston & Associates.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Bristol-Myers Squibb Company has elected to its board Louis J. Freeh, vice chairman of MBNA America Bank, N.A.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation has elected to its board General Donald G. Cook, retired U.S. Air Force Commander.

Calpine Corporation.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Calpine Corporation has elected to its board William J. Keese, former chairman of the California Energy Commission, and Walter L. Revell, chairman and chief executive officer of Revell Investments International, Inc.

CBRL Group, Inc.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... CBRL Group, Inc. has elected to its board Erik Vonk, chairman and chief executive officer of Gevity HR, Inc., and Richard J. Dobkin, former managing partner with Ernst & Young, L.L.P.

The Clorox Company.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... The Clorox Company has elected to its board Pamela Thomas-Graham, group president at Liz Claiborne Inc.

CMS Energy Corporation.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... CMS Energy Corporation has elected to its board Jon E. Barfield, chairman and chief executive officer of The Bartech Group.

Corinthian Colleges, Inc.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Corinthian Colleges, Inc. has elected to its board Terry O. Hartshorn, former chief executive officer of PacifiCare Health Systems, Inc.

GenCorp Inc.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... GenCorp Inc. has elected to its board R. Franklin Balotti, director in the Corporate Department of Richards, Layton and Finger P.A., and Timothy A. Wicks, senior vice president, product development and management for UnitedHealthcare.

First Data Corporation.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... First Data Corporation has elected to its board Peter B. Ellwood, former group chief executive officer at Lloyds TSB Group plc.

Genta Incorporated.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Genta Incorporated has elected to its board Martin Driscoll, former senior vice president of Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Christopher Patios, executive director of The Dominion Group Inc.

Harleysville Group Inc.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Harleysville Group Inc. has elected to its board Nicholas DeBenedictis, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Aqua America, Inc.

Hewlett-Packard Company.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Hewlett-Packard Company has elected to its board John H. Hammergren, chairman and chief executive officer of McKesson Corporation.

International Business Machines Corporation.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... International Business Machines Corporation has elected to its board Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

KeyCorp.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... KeyCorp has elected to its board RalphAlvarez, president of McDonald's North America.

Maxtor Corporation.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Maxtor Corporation has elected to its board Kimberly Alexy, former senior vice president and managing director of Prudential Securities Group, Inc.

McDonald's Corporation.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... McDonald's Corporation has elected to its board Richard H. Lenny, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of The Hershey Company.

Northrop Grumman Corporation.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Northrop Grumman Corporation has elected to its board Stephen E. Frank, former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Southern California Edison Company.

PepsiCo, Inc.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... PepsiCo, Inc. has elected to its board Alberto Ibarguen, president and chief executive officer of the John S and James L Knight Foundation Inc.

Rite Aid Corporation.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Rite Aid Corporation has elected to its board Joseph B. Anderson, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of TAG Holdings, LLC, Robert Mariano, chairman and chief executive officer of Roundy's Supermarkets Inc., and Marcy Syms, chief...

Temple-Inland Inc.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Temple-Inland Inc. has elected to its board Dr. Larry R. Faulkner, president of The University of Texas.

Rite Aid Corporation has elected Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has elected to its board Frank H. Moeller, president and chief executive officer of St. David's Health Care System, Inc.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Rite Aid Corporation has elected Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has elected to its board Frank H. Moeller, president and chief executive officer of St. David's Health Care System, Inc., and Allan R. Spies, former executive vice president and...

United Parcel Service, Inc.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... United Parcel Service, Inc. has elected to its board Michael J. Burns, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Dana Corporation, and Stuart E. Eizenstat, partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling, and a key aide to former...

Valero Energy Corporation.(Directors' Register: Recent Board Elections)
November 1, 2005... Valero Energy Corporation has elected to its board Robert A. Profusek, partner in the law firm of Jones Day.

Dennis A. Johnson: new directions for CalPERS governance.(Conversations)(Interview)
November 1, 2005... In the crowded, active field of corporate governance today, it is hard to remember that ten years ago the California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) was almost the only big institutional player pushing for governance reform. Though...