As the country emerges from the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression, directors, executives and other corporate governance experts gathered to honor the 100 most influential players in the boardroom and analyze recent mistakes and how they can be avoided at the NACD Directorship 100 Forum held Monday and Tuesday in New York City. The 100 honorees were commended at a dinner Monday night in a keynote address by Henry Hu, director of the SEC’s Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation.
Hu presented his “decoupling” concept, and explained how it relates to boards’ current challenges, especially as directors face the new Dodd-Frank Act. He pointed to the Act as the “most comprehensive change in generations… representing a new era for corporations and boards that introduces new challenges and new opportunities. It is important to get the balance between corporate governance and financial innovation right.”
The Forum’s second day featured Anton Valukas, court-appointed examiner in the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, explaining the actions that the Lehman board could have taken to better prepare for the company’s failure. While Valukas does not believe that failure was preventable, he did explain that, had the board asked more important questions, the fall would have had less severe of an impact on the U.S. economy.
“In this case,” said Valukas, “one word would have made the difference: transparency.” (read Valukas’ full report here)
Also featured was Harry Markopolos, author of No One Would Listen, which details his ten-year-long investigation of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, the largest in history. Markopolos took a firm tone with the directors of the room, imploring them to “use your experts and don’t take numbers from management, for the sake of your shareholders and stakeholders. That’s your job.”
Kenneth Daly
Peter R. Gleason
Alexandra R. Lajoux
Henry Stoever
