Category: Governance

The Japan Times:”Governance guru pushes Japan Inc. to open up and diversify”

2015-06-23 posted by

Former trailblazing dean Christina Ahmadjian finds her balance between the classroom and boardroom By Kris Kosaka, June 21, 2015

Christina Ahmadjian, an academic and expert in corporate governance, sits on the boards of several Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Japan Exchange Group, the holding company that oversees the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Often the lone foreigner and only woman in the room, Ahmadjian relishes playing gadfly and applying her research to real-life situations.

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CII: “Best Disclosure: Board Evaluation”

2015-06-18 posted by

The board of directors is the cornerstone of the U.S. model of corporate governance. An effective board ensures that management runs a company in the long-term interests of shareholders, whom the board is elected to represent.

Over time, a board may become complacent or may need new skills and perspectives to respond nimbly to changes in the business environment or strategy. Regular and rigorous self-evaluations help a board to assess its performance and identify and address potential gaps in the boardroom.

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RI: “MSCI ESG Research Round Table Report 2015”

2015-06-18 posted by

Topics covered in the RI Insight/MSCI ESG Research Round Table Report 2015 include:

• The impact of the UK Stewardship Code and other international stewardship codes
• Governance signals of investment risk
• How external fund managers are assessed on stewardship
• Governance practices across Europe and in the US
• Impact of pension fund size on corporate engagement practices
• The asset manager/corporate governance nexus
• Family office and high-net-worth interest
• The growing role of bondholders
• Engagement and co-operation between investors
• Long-term activists

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ISS: “Marked Growth in Prevalence of Outside Directors at Japanese Firms – Spike Reflects Impact of Corporate Governance Reform”

2015-06-17 posted by

(Press release) – Rockville, MD (June 17, 2015) – Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), a leading provider of corporate governance solutions to the global financial community, today announced findings from an analysis of Japanese corporate filings for the 2015 annual meeting season, which show marked growth in the prevalence of outside directors.

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William Saito – “Three Common Trends in the IT Business” (Especially Cyber Security Risk)

2015-06-07 posted by

On January 20 in Davos, Switzerland, US-based consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers released the findings of its 18th annual global CEO survey, A marketplace without boundaries? Responding to disruption, which surveyed 1,322 CEOs in 77 countries. In the survey, the percentage of CEOs who expressed concern over cyber threats showed a considerable increase, from 48 percent in 2014 to 61 percent in 2015.

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