TheCorporateCounsel.net

July 13, 2015

Board Diversity: Shareholders Might Start Voting “No” for Your Nominees

Internationally, there is real momentum for gender diversity on boards, as noted in this “30% Club” article. The companies in the UK are nearing the “25% women on boards” target set few years ago by Lord Davies. Meanwhile, the 10% level here in the USA has been the plateau for quite some time. That may soon change as shareholders take action to vote against a board’s slate of nominees if the board wasn’t sufficiently diverse. For example, the Massachusetts Pension Board recently decided it would no longer vote in favor of slates unless women and minorities make up at least a quarter of the slate.

This Chicago Tribune article notes how the State of Illinois passed a resolution recommending that Illinois corporations have a minimum level of diversity – something that California did two years ago (both of these “resolutions” don’t have the effect of a real state law). This is an issue that is not going away…

Meanwhile, CalSTRS recently issued these “Best Practices in Board Composition“…

Tomorrow’s Webcast: “Nasdaq Speaks ’15: Latest Developments and Interpretations”

Tune in tomorrow for the webcast – “Nasdaq Speaks ’15: Latest Developments and Interpretations” – to hear senior members of the Nasdaq Staff – Arnold Golub, David Strandberg, William Slattery & Cyndi Rodriguez – discuss all the latest. Please print these “Course Materials” in advance…

Transcript: “Escheatment Soup to Nuts: Handling Unclaimed Property Audits & More”

We have posted the transcript for our recent webcast: “Escheatment Soup to Nuts: Handling Unclaimed Property Audits & More.”

Last week, the FASB reaffirmed its decision back in April to defer the effective date of the new revenue standard (ASU 2014-09) for one year (and allow early adoption as of the original effective date)…

– Broc Romanek