NACD in the News

• Want to Join a Corporate Board? Network and Exhibit Skills

  David Chavern first joined the board of directors of insurer Transamerica when he was COO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He hadn’t been looking for a board position at the time but was approached about the job by the chairman, who was also a member of the Chamber’s board of directors.

• You Don’t Know Andrea Weiss, but You Probably Love Her Retail Brands

  In a soaring atrium in one of those slick skyscrapers sheathed in glass on New York’s Park Avenue, prolific adviser and board member Andrea Weiss finds some spare time to sit down for an interview. Surrounded by the requisite marble, water fixture and big glass windows, I pick out a table near a landmark, in this case a grand piano, a latte for her at the ready.

• Ease the Burden for Time-Strapped Board Members

  Does it feel like your board is always in a time crunch? That’s a common feeling among association boards and CEOs, says Carol Hamilton, principal at Grace Social Sector Consulting. One culprit: poorly executed meetings that take away from time that could be better spent on strategic discussions. “Too often board meetings aren’t constructed so well,” says Hamilton. “There’s a lot of time spent listening to reports or doing work that perhaps doesn’t need to be done at [the] face-to-face meeting.” According to a 2019 report from the National Association of Corporate Directors, 74 percent of board members predict they’ll need more time to fulfill their leadership responsibilities in the future.

• Governing in a Perfect Storm

  Leading in an environment of constant disruption requires both a steady hand and courage to break with tradition. To ensure their long-term success, organizations need volunteer leaders who bring new skills, an open mind, and a willingness to keep learning.

• Cybersecurity Strategy: The Business Risk Of Being Caught Unprepared

  The chief information security officer (CISO) is a relatively new role and more and more companies are considering adding the position or increasing the influence of their existing CISO. The urgency stems from an increasing number of reported breaches, many involving hundreds of millions of records and requiring millions and even billions of dollars in fines and damage repair. In fact, Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that cybercrime will be a $6 trillion business by 2021.

• Limeade Predicts 2020 Employee Experience Market Disruptor: Authentic Care For Workforces

  Today employee experience company Limeade announced its prediction for the exploding employee experience market in 2020: a shift toward technologies that help companies show their employees that they care.

• Goldman Sachs pushes for more diverse boards of directors

  The CEO of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, told CNBC Thursday that starting this year, his investment bank would refuse to help companies go public “unless there’s at least one diverse board candidate, with a focus on women.” He noted the nearly 60 companies in the U.S. and Europe that have gone public in recent years with all-male boards and said companies with at least one woman director perform “significantly better.”

• BlackRock support may offer momentum for SASB, TCFD disclosures

  (January 21, 2020) - In the absence of a government mandate but the presence of investor pressure, U.S. public companies are navigating an array of private options to guide what sustainability information they report publicly. Now, the world's largest asset manager has publicly and definitively picked a side — or two.

• BlackRock's climate stance spurs advocate optimism, corporate questions

  (January 17, 2020) - When the head of the world's largest asset management firm announced that he expects companies to consider their business in the context of climate change and that sustainable investments are the way forward, he added to mounting pressures on corporations to address environmental, social, and governance issues, experts and investor advocates said.

• Tip sheet: 2020 priorities for accounting and audit regulators

  The regulatory priorities of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and Financial Accounting Standards Board for 2020 and beyond impacting financial reporting and related governance should be top of mind for boards of directors and their committees as they perform their oversight, according to a recent publication of the National Association of Corporate Directors and Contributing Partners: “2020 Governance Outlook, Projections on Emerging Board Matters.”