Bloomberg Boards & Risk Briefing: Under Attack - The New Assault on American Corporations
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Webcast and audience participation from Bloomberg Headquarters, 731 Lexington Avenue, between East 58 & 59 Streets, New York City on Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 8:30 a.m.

The Torrenzano Group, White House Writers Group, and CED invite you to a half-day briefing on important new developments effecting corporations and what information, strategies, and techniques executives need to address them.
Read more...
 
Restoring Trust in Corporate Governance: Six Essential Tasks for Boards of Directors and Business Leaders
Monday, 25 January 2010
CED Statement Aims to Focus Directors and Executives on Governance Essentials in Time of Economic Turmoil and Change

If American business leaders are to restore public confidence in how companies are run, boards of directors must discharge six essential, closely interrelated tasks. That is the message of a new CED policy brief, Restoring Trust in Corporate Governance: The Six Essential Tasks of Boards of Directors and Business Leaders. The brief was written by Ben W. Heineman, Jr., CED Trustee and former Vice President and General Counsel for General Electric Corporation, with the consultation and advice from the CED's Subcommittee on Corporate Governance.

Read more...
 
Rebuilding Corporate Leadership - How Directors Can Link Long-Term Performance With Public Goals
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
CED Releases Recommendations in New Report
donaldson
The Honorable William H. Donaldson

CED has released a new report, Rebuilding Corporate Leadership: How Directors Can Link Long-Term Performance with Public Goals. The report concludes that corporate boards and the leaders they select must integrate relevant societal concerns, such as environmental and human rights considerations, into corporate strategy, to strengthen long-term competitiveness and the sustainability of both the corporation and the society in which it exists.

 

The report was released on February 18, 2009 in New York City at a Forum that featured a keynote speech by CED Trustee William H. Donaldson [play part 1] [play part 2] . Donaldson, a former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission is also the Chair of CED's Corporate Governance Subcommittee. On February 6th, Mr. Donaldson was named to an Advisory Board on Economic Recovery by President Barack Obama.

Read more...
 
CED Urges Treasury to Demand Larger Role for Independent Compensation Committees
Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Executive Compensation Needs Independent Review, Ties to Company Performance

Responding to the controversy in the current crisis in financial markets, CED, today reemphasized that truly independent compensation committees of corporate boards are the key to bringing executive pay in line with company performance. "If the Treasury is to buy questionable financial assets to shore up firms' balance sheets, the nation should require that those firms adhere to the best practices to determine fair executive compensation, based on performance. Shareholder and public confidence can be reestablished only by prudent pay packages tied to performance, with no outsized severance packages," said CED Trustee and former SEC Chairman, Roderick M. Hills. Mr. Hills chaired the CED Subcommittee on Corporate Governance which produced the 2006 report Private Enterprise, Public Trust: The State of Corporate America After Sarbanes-Oxley.

Read more...
 
CED Co-Hosts Best Practices in Earnings Guidance and Communications Symposium
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
photo200809corp_donaldonson_420
The Bloomberg Building in New York City was the site for a September 17, 2008 symposium on the practice of earnings guidance by companies and stock market professionals. CED and others believe that an over-emphasis on quarterly earnings guidance leads to "short termism," or a negative and undue focus on hitting announced earnings goals. CED Trustee and former SEC Chairman William H. Donaldson provided the keynote address that started the session and linked the current turmoil in financial markets to "excessive focus by too many corporations on achieving short term results." His entire prepared remarks can be found here. CED has long advocated responsible corporate governance practices and in late 2007 released Built to Last: Focusing Corporations on Long-Term Performance, a report that examines the drawbacks of "short termism" and offers recommendations for curbing excessive earnings guidance.
Read more...
 
CED Releases Built to Last: Focusing Corporations on Long-Term Performance
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
photo2007corpgov_panel372
An increasingly short-term focus by many business leaders is damaging the ability of public companies to sustain long-term performance. This trend is hampering growth in the American economy. That is the message of a new report, Built to Last: Focusing Corporations on Long-Term Performance, from CED. The report was released at an event on June 27, 2007 in New York City that featured a keynote speech by William Donaldson, former SEC Chairman. Mr. Donaldson, a CED Trustee is the Chair of CED's Subcommittee on Corporate Governance, which produced the report. A panel of corporate governance experts took part in the release event. The report offers recommendations for corporations to improve performance by focusing on long-term goals and Former Chairman Donaldson believes an end to "short-termism" is necessary. "Short-termism" is defined as an undue focus on meeting quarterly forecasts and a lesser emphasis on long-term planning.
Read more...
 
CED Releases Recommendations for Improving Corporate Governance
Tuesday, 21 March 2006

Private Enterprise, Public Trust: The State of Corporate America After Sarbanes-Oxley

cover_2006corpgov

The highly visible accounting scandals that surrounded the collapse of Enron, WorldCom, and several other major companies -together with the revelation of fraud and other acts of malfeasance by corporate executive- have aroused public outrage, called into question the values and ethics of business leaders, and undermined the public's confidence in public companies. CED is concerned about the reality, as well as the appearance, of corporate impropriety.

Read more...
 
William Mcdonough Addresses CED Corporate Governance Forum
Tuesday, 13 April 2004
A keynote speech by William J. McDonough, Chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) highlighted the CED corporate governance reform forum held at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. on April 13th. Chairman McDonough outlined the work of the PCAOB (created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) and touched on reforms that he thinks are necessary to improve corporate governance and restore shareholder confidence. McDonough said he believes that excessive CEO compensation is a serious problem and that the practice of predicting corporate earnings must be reconsidered. The luncheon speech attracted 150 attendees from Washington business and political circles.

More Information
 
Corporate Governance Forum in New York City
Wednesday, 16 April 2003
On April 16, 2003, CED hosted a Corporate Governance Forum in New York City. Numerous CED Trustees joined CED President Charles E. M. Kolb and Trustee Roderick M. Hills, Partner, Hills & Stern, to discuss the issue of corporate governance in America. Alex Berenson, reporter from the New York Times and author of the recently released, The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America, spoke to the group about his perception why US companies commit corrupt acts. CED Trustees have decided to form a subcommittee to further explore the issue of corporate governance.

 

More Information
 


CED, the Committee for Economic Development is an independent, nonpartisan organization for business and education leaders dedicated to policy research on the major economic and social issues of our time and the implementation of its recommendations by the public and private sectors.