Featured Luncheon Speaker/Fireside Chat: Your Seat in the Modern Board Room: What Can IR Bring to the Table?
By Michael Ferreter
Speaker: Douglas Chia, President, Soundboard Governance LLC
Moderator: Victor Jendras, Senior Vice President, Alliance Advisors
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Doug Chia shared his perspective on ongoing changes to corporate governance and how IR officers can work with their board of directors. He began by illustrating how the proxy statement has evolved from an SEC compliance document to a glossy document, similar to an annual report. He noted that proxy statements have gotten longer because more stakeholders are demanding more information from companies. IR officers can help investors by making it easier to find information and using the proxy statement to reinforce strategic themes.
- Chia described the current theme of the federal government being more involved (calling for CEO resignations, taking stakes in publicly traded companies) as one that leads to an environment that chills disclosures during proxy season. Artificial intelligence is a tool that can supply the board with tools to do their job better, he said, but it feels as though no one has a handle on it, similar to social media in its infancy. He applauded the trend over the past 10 years of IR officers increasingly presenting to their boards, citing the audit an nominating-compensation committees as the most likely audiences. He also lamented the pendulum swing away from environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting, as investors still want that information disclosed.