Melissa Aguilar is Director of Content Creation at the KPMG Board Leadership Center, KPMG LLP. This post is based on her KPMG memorandum. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes Politics and Gender in the Executive Suite (discussed on the Forum here) by Alma Cohen, Moshe Hazan, and David Weiss; Will Nasdaq’s Diversity Rules Harm Investors? (discussed on the Forum here) by Jesse M. Fried; and Duty and Diversity (discussed on the Forum here) by Chris Brummer and Leo E. Strine, Jr.
A premium on thinking differently
Recent progress—and the continued push—toward greater boardroom diversity comes at a pivotal time for corporate America. The ability to challenge long-held assumptions; understand megatrends; and effectively calibrate strategy, risk, and talent in the context of heightened stakeholder expectations puts a premium on thinking differently.
To better understand how directors view the opportunities and challenges of enhancing diversity in the boardroom, the KPMG Board Leadership Center surveyed more than 700 directors around the world.
Among the U.S. respondents to the survey, it’s clear that:
- Many directors would make moderate changes to their board’s composition if starting from a clean sheet
- Directors have concerns about blind spots and missed opportunities due to a lack of diverse views.
- Sixty-nine percent of directors say board diversity of composition and thinking is relevant or very relevant to the company’s consideration of its role in society.
- While a majority of directors say board leadership is effective at drawing out the views of all members, achieving better boardroom discussions is a work in progress.
- Racial and ethnic diversity and technology and digital experience continue to be in high demand.
These trends are also reflected in other countries around the world, with notable variations. (See global results in the complete publication, available here.)
We hope these survey results—and questions—help you drive robust discussions about diversity in your own boardroom.
The Proposed SEC Climate Disclosure Rule: A Comment from Jon Lukomnik and Keith Johnson
More from: Jon Lukomnik, Keith Johnson
Jon Lukomnik is Managing Director of Sinclair Capital, LLC, and Keith Johnson is CEO of Global Investor Collaboration Services, LLC. This post is based on their comment letter submitted to the SEC regarding the Proposed SEC Climate Disclosure Rule.
Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes The Illusory Promise of Stakeholder Governance by Lucian A. Bebchuk and Roberto Tallarita (discussed on the Forum here); Does Enlightened Shareholder Value add Value (discussed on the Forum here) and Stakeholder Capitalism in the Time of COVID (discussed on the Forum here), both by Lucian A. Bebchuk, Kobi Kastiel and Roberto Tallarita; Restoration: The Role Stakeholder Governance Must Play in Recreating a Fair and Sustainable American Economy – A Reply to Professor Rock by Leo E. Strine, Jr. (discussed on the Forum here); and Corporate Purpose and Corporate Competition by Mark J. Roe (discussed on the Forum here).
This post is based on a comment letter submitted to the SEC by Jon Lukomnik and Keith Johnson regarding the Proposed SEC Climate Disclosure Rule. Below is the text of the letter with minor adjustments to eliminate the correspondence-related parts of the letter.
It is our pleasure to submit comments in support of S7-10-22, the proposed rule “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors”.
By way of background on the signatories, Jon Lukomnik is the managing partner of Sinclair Capital LLC, a strategic consultancy to institutional investors. Jon has been the investment advisor or a trustee for more than $100 billion (including New York City’s pension funds) and has consulted to institutional investors with aggregate assets of $1 trillion dollars. He served for more than a decade as the executive director of the IRRC Institute, which researched capital market issues. Jon is currently a trustee for the Van Eck mutual funds, and a board member for The Shareholder Commons. He co-founded the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) and GovernanceMetrics International (now part of MSCI). Jon is a Senior Fellow for the High Meadows Institute and a former Pembroke Visiting Professor at the Judge Business School at Cambridge (UK). He has written three books and more than 200 practitioner and academic articles examining the capital markets. His work has been recognized and honored by the ICGN, Council of Institutional Investors, Ethisphere, the National Association of Corporate Directors, Transparency Task Force, and Global Proxy Watch.
Keith Johnson is CEO of Global Investor Collaboration Services, LLC, which provides educational, governance and stewardship-support services to global institutional investors that collectively have more than $5 trillion under management. He previously served as the chief legal officer of the ninth largest public pension fund in the United States and co-chaired the Institutional Investor Services group at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c. Keith was also President of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys, Program Director of the University of Wisconsin Law School’s International Corporate Governance Initiative, chair of the Intentional Endowments Network Fiduciary Duty Working Group, and co-editor of the Cambridge University (UK) Handbook of Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty.
READ MORE »