The past decade has been a whirlwind for corporate governance in America. Since 2001, we have witnessed a myriad of scandals, epic corporate failures and legislative and regulatory attempts to prevent more of the same. Early on it was the failure of firms such as Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing. More recently, the failure of financial stalwarts like Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and AIG nearly pushed our markets to the brink of collapse. These failures have ushered in a new era of shareholder activism and corporate governance initiatives, including extensive legislative reform efforts and new rules by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

While many of the proxy-related reforms have focused on enhanced disclosure requirements (the SEC has approved expansive new rules around director experience and qualifications, board leadership structure, board risk oversight responsibilities and Compensation Disclosure and Analysis (CD&A) disclosure), new regulations have been put in place that fundamentally shift what issues are considered by shareholder at annual meetings in the United States.

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