Corporate Governance Blog

Discussion of legal and corporate governance issues facing major companies.

Author: Institutional Shareholder Services, whose U.S. headquarters is in Rockville, Md., is a wholly-owned subsidiary of RiskMetrics Group. Together, they have 900 employees in 23 offices. They focus on helping companies with corporate governance, and, as ISS reports on its Web site, "we are working to innovate solutions that enable institutional investors to effectively manage risk through a broad range of environmental, social and governance data, research, analytics and modeling."

Blawg Related Categories: Corporate Law • Business Law • Legal Information

Recent Posts from Corporate Governance Blog

House Panel Approves Proxy Access ProvisionSubmitted by Ted Allen, Publications/Governance Institute
The U.S. House Financial Services Committee voted 41-28 today to approve a wide-ranging investor protection bill that affirms the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a rule on proxy access. The legislation,…
Canadian Companies Agree on Draft Say-on-Pay Resolution for 2010Submitted by: Julie Scott, Canadian Research Team
Nine of the 13 Canadian companies that will give shareholders their first vote on executive compensation have agreed in principle on a draft resolution that will appear on proxy ballots in 2010. The resolution is…
Activists Welcome the SEC’s New Guidance on Risk ProposalsSubmitted by: Carolyn Mathiasen, Sustainability Solutions Group
Shareholder activist proponents are cheering the Securities and Exchange Commission’s reinterpretation of its 2005 Legal Bulletin 14C, which tried to define when companies could omit environmental and social policy resolutions as “ordinary business” issues because…
RiskMetrics Group Opens Comment Period for 2010 Proxy Voting PoliciesSubmitted by: Sarah Cohn, Corporate Communications
RiskMetrics Group today announced the opening of its annual comment period for its 2010 proxy voting policies. The comment period, part of RiskMetrics’ policy development process, offers institutional investors, corporate issuers, and industry constituents the…
RiskMetrics Publishes its 2009 Postseason ReportSubmitted by: Sarah Cohn, Communications
RiskMetrics has published a summary of its 2009 Postseason Report, which has extensive analysis of investor and issuer responses to the key corporate governance issues from this season. To access the report, please visit here.…
Final SEC Vote on Proxy Access May Not Occur Until 2010Submitted by: Ted Allen, Publications
The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to delay a final vote on proxy access until 2010, Bloomberg News reported today. The SEC was planning take a final vote on its proposed proxy access rule in…
A Closer Look at High Withhold VotesSubmitted by: Ted Allen, Publications
While most directors at U.S. companies continue to receive overwhelming support each year, there was a significant increase in the number of board members who failed to win majority support in uncontested elections during the…
RiskMetrics Releases 2009 Corporate Governance Background Report on Poison PillsSubmitted by: Kevin M. Wells, US Research
Though not as prevalent as they once were, shareholder rights plans, commonly referred to as “poison pills,” remain a fixture of the corporate governance landscape. As the global economic crisis took a toll across U.S.…
Microsoft Agrees to Hold a Triennial Pay VoteSubmitted by: Ted Allen, Publications
Microsoft has become the first U.S. company to agree to hold a triennial advisory vote on executive compensation. The software giant’s example, if followed by other issuers, could put significant pressure on U.S. lawmakers to…
Obama Renews Call for Shareholder Votes on PaySubmitted by: Ted Allen, Publications
During a speech to mark the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, President Barack Obama renewed his call for financial regulatory reform and shareholder votes on executive pay. While Obama didn’t mention specific legislation,…