Tag Archives: boards

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Dominic Barton: On fast bucks and real value

In The Director’s Chair with David W. Anderson: Dominic Barton, global managing director of McKinsey & Co., sounds the alarm for Western business leaders, markets and investors: lose the short-term bias or lose the race
 April 15th, 2013

Dominic Barton grew up on Canada’s west coast and, a couple of decades later, made his way to the top job at global consulting giant McKinsey & Co. via postings in Seoul and then Shanghai. So it’s no surprise to … Continue reading →

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Director PROTIP: action beats reaction

Shareholder activism is on the rise. No surprise there. What is news is that, in scrambling proactively to address anything that might make them activist targets, boards are starting to change how they’re built and how they operate
By Mark Anderson
 April 14th, 2013

For the past 10 months, Calgary-based fertilizer giant Agrium Inc. (TSX:AGU) has been the focus of a very public proxy war with New York hedge fund Jana Partners, which had sought to replace five of Agrium’s 13 board members with … Continue reading →

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Hugh Bolton: The bottom line on oversight

In The Director’s Chair with David W. Anderson: Hugh Bolton, former top accountant, now top chair and director, says directors on resource sector boards must dig for answers to really know the business they’re in
 February 25th, 2013

Hugh Bolton had a sterling career as a chartered accountant, culminating in his role as head of Coopers & Lybrand Canada in the 1990s. The insights gained in that arena have also served him exceedingly well in his second career … Continue reading →

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The ultimate impasse

There’s a lot at stake when boards of directors and CEOs disagree. Sometimes, the tension is creative and easily resolved. But when it’s not, boards must act
By Paul Brent
 September 26th, 2012

Conflict happens. It is a natural outcome of putting a group of people together in a room and asking them to make oftentimes-difficult decisions. That dynamic is magnified when corporate directors and officers with varied backgrounds, skills, life lessons and … Continue reading →

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Peter Dey: Let directors direct

In The Director’s Chair with David W. Anderson: Peter Dey, Canada’s preeminent governance guru, discusses the primacy of board accountability and its continuing role in driving good governance, board improvement and productive owner-board relations
 September 20th, 2012

No single Canadian can take more credit for being a catalyst of improved corporate governance and board reform than Peter Dey. Today, Dey is chair of Toronto-based investment dealer Paradigm Capital and an active adviser on governance to global bodies … Continue reading →

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Annette Verschuren: The compleat director

In The Director’s Chair with David W. Anderson: Annette Verschuren, former president of Home Depot Canada and Asia, says today’s best directors are equally successful in the boardroom and in the community
 June 17th, 2012

Annette Verschuren is a highly regarded CEO, chair and director who served as president of Home Depot Canada and Asia for 15 years through 2011. Her primary role today is chair and CEO of NRStor Inc., an energy storage company. … Continue reading →

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Banking on better boards

Canada’s superintendent of financial institutions is bringing down new corporate governance guidelines for Canadian banks. Her aim: boards that are better at holding management to account
 March 16th, 2012

Insider Julie Dickson Who Superintendent, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Involvement Three years ago, The New York Times said Julie Dickson had moved from bureaucratic obscurity to become a minor celebrity for her role in keeping Canada’s banking system … Continue reading →

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Robert L. Crandall: The board as wingman

In The Director’s Chair with David W. Anderson: Robert L. Crandall, chair of Celestica Inc. and former CEO and chair of AMR Corp. and American Airlines, shares some strong thoughts on CEOs and boards working closer together
 March 15th, 2012

Robert Crandall is best known globally for being the CEO and chair of AMR Corp. and American Airlines Inc. through much of the 1980s and ’90s. He played a central role in making American the leading innovator in the industry … Continue reading →

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How to see it coming

The failure to understand and evaluate the interconnectivity and compounding effects of risks is a major flaw in the way many boards oversee enterprise risk
By John Caldwell
 March 15th, 2012

While board members from time to time may lay awake thinking about a so-called “Black Swan” event that could cause catastrophic damage to the company for which they serve as directors, we would assert that far fewer directors share sleepless … Continue reading →

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My portal or yours?

Board portals: once a sleepy software product, now a disruptive technology. Courtesy of the iPad
By Joel Kranc
 January 6th, 2012

STEVE JOBS’ VISION and understanding of what people wanted—sometimes before they even knew it—runs the spectrum from everyday iPod user to the most senior directors at the boardroom table. Case in point: the iPad. The iPad is single-handedly changing the … Continue reading →

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Who owns the strategy?

Is it the CEO? Or the board? The answer, says board consultant and author Beverly Behan, is the CEO. But woe the chief who thinks the board’s a rubber stamp. A better approach: engage directors early, and often
By Beverly Behan
 January 3rd, 2012

MANY BOARDS consider the oversight of corporate strategy their most important governance responsibility. For the past two years, “strategic planning and oversight” has ranked first—by a wide margin—in national surveys of U.S. public company directors about their top priorities. Despite … Continue reading →

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Putting risk in its place

Escalating expectations, obligations and unwelcome surprises have directors losing sleep worrying about risk oversight. The solution lies in a mix of tried-and-true leadership and the latest knowledge and tools
By Cooper Langford
 November 23rd, 2011

WHEN YOU’VE SPENT close to two decades as a CEO, held more than a dozen positions on high-level boards, and have board or executive experience in four distressed situations, you’ve earned the right to the first word on risk. “Risk … Continue reading →

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Carol Stephenson: Risk, reward, repeat

In The Director's Chair, with David W. Anderson: In an era when women presidents, CEOs, chairs, corporate directors and business deans are still the exception, Carol Stephenson has excelled in all five roles
 October 7th, 2011

It’s fitting that Carol Stephenson is dean of the Richard Ivey School of Business, for her multifaceted career is a case study in the value of lifelong learning, peer interaction and the power of strong leadership. In addition to her … Continue reading →

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Secrets of succession

Boards’ compensation duties don’t end at setting CEO pay—they also include putting in place the right people and plans for the CEO’s replacement
By Ken Hugessen
 October 7th, 2011

Developing and executing a plan for internal CEO succession is one of the critical challenges boards face. The importance of effective succession planning is widely recognized by institutional shareholders and industry analysts; among others, the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance’s … Continue reading →

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A board’s last, best chance

When serious corporate wrongdoing or transactional conflict surfaces at a company, the board's next course of action is to strike a special committee. Adhering to a few key steps will help ensure its success
By Poonam Puri
 October 7th, 2011

When serious wrongdoing within a corporation is suspected, it often falls to the board of directors to identify and address the allegations. It comes up time and time again, from financial statement irregularities and stock option backdating, to insider trading … Continue reading →

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