Celebrating good, hard work in the face of adversity
In this letter last year, I wrote about the importance of good governance and how grateful I was to have a reason to celebrate the achievements of our winners. If I’d known then what I know now, I would have saved that sentiment for this year’s letter.
The governance community has faced a host of unique challenges this year – from scrambling to host virtual shareholder meetings and adjust proxy statements accordingly to bolstering disclosure around employee safety and facilitating a more frequent dialogue between boards and management. In my job, I get to sit back and watch the community respond to these challenges, and it’s remarkable to witness the sheer volume of work that has been achieved this year. I hope that during the upcoming holidays, you can all reflect on just how valuable that work has been.
And that’s why it really was a privilege to recognize the achievements of so many at this year’s Corporate Governance Awards. Like all of you, we adopted a virtual format, but that didn’t stop us (and many of our attendees) donning our tuxedos and ball gowns and quaffing champagne, even as we sat at our desks at home.
This year’s awards will serve as a time capsule of the tremendous work carried out by the governance community, from proxy statements and entity management to virtual meetings and ethics and compliance. We hope you enjoy reading about our winners’ great achievements, and this year you’ll also have the added bonus of watching our winners discuss their achievements: in this interactive issue, we have embedded video interviews with our award winners and award partners.
I’d like to single out one individual in particular for recognition this year: congratulations to Joan Conley, the 2020 recipient of the lifetime achievement award. As the senior vice president and corporate secretary at Nasdaq, she has been influential in shaping Nasdaq’s vision of good governance and that work has had a ripple effect across many boardrooms and corporate secretariat offices.
Of course, our winners’ profiles are accompanied by explorations of other pressing topics, including how issuers should implement the SEC’s Regulation SK changes, how Covid-19 changed the role of the general counsel, the role of in-house legal in creating more diverse workforces and boardrooms, and a Q&A with Martin Jarzebowski, director of responsible investing at Federated Hermes.
Thank you for reading and for your support of Corporate Secretary. Please stay safe and sane this winter.
Ben Ashwell Editor, Corporate Secretary +1 212 430 6869 ben.ashwell@corporatesecretary.com
Editor Ben Ashwell Editor-at-large Ben Maiden Managing editor & chief copy editor Kathleen Hennessy Contributors Lauren Boehmke, Matthew Dolloff, Erica Hogan, Matt Hurd, William Mills, Mike Schnitzel Design and production executive James Noden Head of marketing Marie Paul
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