The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Sun, 26 Apr 2026 11:30:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png The Relationship Between the Lead Director and the CEO – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 The Relationship Between the Lead Director and the CEO https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2011/05/21/the-relationship-between-the-lead-director-and-the-ceo/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-relationship-between-the-lead-director-and-the-ceo https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2011/05/21/the-relationship-between-the-lead-director-and-the-ceo/#comments Sat, 21 May 2011 14:47:12 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/?p=17613?d=20150115115300EST Posted by Jeffrey Stein, King & Spalding LLP, on Saturday, May 21, 2011
Editor's Note:

This post comes to us from Jeffrey Stein and Bill Baxley of King & Spalding LLP; both Mr. Stein and Mr. Baxley are partners in the Corporate Practice Group at King & Spalding. This post relates to a recent meeting of the Lead Director Network, which is described in more detail here.

A strong, productive relationship between the lead director and a company’s chief executive officer (“CEO”) will support improved corporate performance, as well as a more effective board of directors. Such a relationship between the lead director and the CEO can help a company execute its strategy more effectively, successfully navigate a crisis, complete a major corporate transaction and resolve the multitude of other issues that a company and its board will encounter. However, notwithstanding the increased prevalence of the lead director position and the recent expansion of lead directors’ roles, there is little formal guidance as to what practices and procedures are beneficial, or detrimental, to the relationship between the lead director and CEO.

Against this background, the Lead Director Network (the “LDN”), a group of lead directors, presiding directors and non-executive chairmen from many of America’s leading companies, met on March 1, 2011 to discuss the relationship between the lead director and the CEO. Following this meeting, King & Spalding and Tapestry Networks have published a ViewPoints report here to present highlights of the discussion that occurred at the meeting and to stimulate further consideration of these subjects.

The following provides highlights from the meeting, as described in the ViewPoints report.

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