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Posts Tagged ‘Reatha Clark King’

NACD Announces Blue Ribbon Commissioners for Lead Director Report

June 7th, 2011 | By NACD Staff

An elite group of more than 20 corporate directors and corporate governance thought-leaders have begun work on the 2011 Report of the NACD Blue Ribbon Commission on the Effective Lead Director, led by co-chairs Barbara Hackman Franklin, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce , director of Aetna and Dow Chemical Company and chairman of the board for NACD, and Irvine Hockaday, director for Ford Motor Company, Estée Lauder and Crown Media Holdings.

Lead directors play a significant role in the boardroom, enhancing board effectiveness by acting as independent figures in communicating the needs between the company’s management and board. Five years ago, only 39 percent of boards had lead directors. That number has almost doubled. Today, 66 percent of boards have a lead director.

NACD broadly defined the duties of the lead director in a 2004 Blue Ribbon Commission Report. Leveraging their years of experience, the NACD Blue Ribbon Commissioners will clarify the role of the lead director in order to enhance the effectiveness of the lead director in the boardroom. The 2011 report will expand the earlier recommendations by exploring how the lead director role can be used to the fullest extent. Specifically, the report will discuss the evolving roles and responsibilities of the lead director; the ideal profile of a lead director; and key relationships and communications of the lead director, including those between management and shareholders. The report will also offer recommendations for future challenges facing the role.

The 2011 Commissioners who contribute their views to the report are directors from leading companies and corporate governance experts. In addition to co-chairs Barbara Hackman Franklin and Irvine Hockaday, the panel includes:

Peter Browning, director for Nucor, Lowe’s, Enpro Logistics, Acuity Brands
Peter Clapman, director for iPass Inc.
Reatha Clark King, former director for ExxonMobil, Wells Fargo and Lenox
Martin M. Coyne, director for Akamai
Ken Daly, president & CEO, NACD
Theodore Dysart, vice chairman with Heidrick & Struggles
Charles Elson, director for HealthSouth
Raymond Gilmartin, director for General Mills
Peter Gleason, managing director & CFO, NACD
Richard Goldstein, director for Interpublic Group
Allan Grafman, director for Majesco Entertainment
Ellen Hancock, director for Aetna, Colgate
Bonnie Hill, director for Home Depot
Karen Horn, director for Eli Lilly
Jannice Koors, managing director at Pearl Meyer & Partners
Richard Koppes, director for NutraCea Corp.
John A. Krol, director for ACE Limited, Delphi, Tyco
Gregory Lau, executive director of corporate governance for General Motors Corporation
Alex Mandl, director for Dell, Horizon Lines, Visteon Corp
Mary Pat McCarthy, executive director for KPMG Audit Institute
William McCracken, director for Computer Associates
Joseph O’Donnell, director for Comverse Technology
John Olson, partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Warren Phillips, director for CACI International Inc.
Norman Veasey, senior partner and strategic adviser at Weil, Gotshal & Manges
William White, director, ContextMedia, Inc., former chairman & CEO at Bell & Howell
Alex Wittenberg, partner at Oliver Wyman

Holly Gregory, corporate partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, will also serve as governance counsel to the Commission.

The 2011 Report of the NACD Blue Ribbon Commission on the Lead Director is scheduled for release at the NACD Annual Board Leadership Conference, October 2-4, 2011, in Washington, DC.

Tags: Annual Board Leadership Conference, Barbara Franklin, Blue Ribbon Commission, board leadership, BRC Report on the Effective Lead Director, Charles Elson, Irvine Hockaday, Ken Daly, KPMG, Lead director, Mary Pat McCarthy, Oliver Wyman, Peter Gleason, Reatha Clark King, Weil Gotshal & Manges
Posted in Board Composition, Corporate Governance, Inside NACD | No Comments »

NACD Prepares Directors for Heightened Responsibilities and Regulation

February 10th, 2011 | By Henry Stoever

America’s economic health is inextricably linked to business growth and sound boardroom practices. And while many decry the corporate scandals that erupted in recent years, NACD believes in looking towards the future and working with directors to better prepare them to lead America’s companies.

How to Be(come) a Director is our new Web-based course designed to educate newly minted directors and help aspiring directors advance their board careers by learning about boardroom best practices that will enable them to become responsible stewards of companies and shareholders. This is not some sterile academic exercise, to be sure. Rather, the 4 hour eLearning course provides real-life lessons from top corporate governance experts, including directors of Fortune 500 companies and scholars at prominent academic institutions. The topics covered in the course are essential to sound corporate management: fiduciary responsibilities, essential directorship skills, the board selection process, understanding committees, and much more.

Watch the trailer:

How to Be(come) A Director Trailer

Want a sneak peek to see how this course works?

Click here to play video bios of the expert directors who teach the course.
Click here to enjoy this free sample of some of the course videos.

Course participants will learn from a veritable “Who’s Who” in corporate governance, including Kenneth Daly, the president and CEO of NACD; Denny Beresford, director at Fannie Mae, Kimberly-Clark Corporation and Legg Mason; Reatha Clark King, former director at General Mills Foundation and at Exxon Mobil Corporation; and Professor Charles M. Elson, the director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.

For just under $400, this self-paced program fills an urgent need, seeking to raise the standards of ethical behavior, accountability and competence in boardroom leadership. It also helps current and future directors cope with an atmosphere of heightened regulation and scrutiny.

Repeat access to the course gives participants the flexibility to review certain sections again for better understanding. In addition, the core course content is supplemented by downloads that can be used to build a personal corporate governance library, as well as video, bonus materials and knowledge checks for participants to see how much they’ve learned.

It is not getting any easier to run a company in this age of intensified public scrutiny and government regulation. However, How to Be(come) a Director provides a solid platform to help corporate directors prepare for boardroom success both for their companies and for their own careers.

Tags: board directors, Charles M. Elson, corporate director education, Dennis Beresford, Director Professionalism, How to Become a Director, Reatha Clark King
Posted in Corporate Governance, Leadership | 1 Comment »

The Global Question: Do Directors Have What it Takes?

November 3rd, 2010 | By NACD Staff

Having a global perspective – or at least someone on the board asking the right questions relating to global changes – is critical for today’s companies. Major international demographic changes are taking place in the U.S. and around the world. These changes impact how we do business and where our opportunities and challenges are.

At a recent gathering of corporate directors, many questions were raised about “the global question.”

About who in the boardroom is raising the questions, and do we have the range of skill sets, experiences, and backgrounds necessary to address these changes in the competitive environment?
Is someone asking what our crisis communication plan is? The plan needs to be developed well before a crisis in order to be out in front of the social media avenues, delivering the message concerning the crisis.
For insights on how former Exxon Mobil director Reatha Clark King and former ConocoPhillips chairman and CEO Archie Dunham handled major crises at their companies, view NACD’s webinar (complimentary for NACD members); for more and for sample plans, see NACD’s Board Leadership for the Company in Crisis, (full disclosure: I co-authored this publication).
Do we have board members raising the right questions about communications in this new environment of social media, blogging, and real-time news? (p.s., have you seen some of the headlines in NACD Directors Daily about this issue – Social Media vs. Anti-Social CEO, Facebook, Twitter Help Companies Connect, or The Democratization Of Corporate Philanthropy?)

If we are to protect the reputation of the company, we can’t be the last to get the message out. Changes in criteria for board leadership to meet today’s challenges can be overlooked as well. We need to look carefully at the challenges and opportunities in our current and future environment, our short-term and long-term strategy, and ask ourselves whether the right people are at the table to meet those challenges. Click below to see a quick video about how NACD’s Board Advisory Services can help your board meet global (and other) challenges head-on.