Q&A With Charles Elson — Bridging Board Gaps

by Gary Larkin for The Conference Board – Governance Center Blog, June 6th, 2011.

Of the many reports that are out there on corporate governance, there is one that should be included in your “must read” pile this summer. Bridging Board Gaps is a 60-page report produced by a group of directors, business leaders, academics and former government officials that attempts to address board governance challenges following the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

Produced in the same vein as the National Association of Corporate Directors’ many Blue Ribbon task forces, the Study Group on Corporate Boards was chaired by Charles Elson, the chair of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware; Glenn Hubbard, dean and professor of finance and economics at Columbia University’s Business School; and Frank Zarb, senior advisor of Hellman and Friedman and non-executive chair of Promontory Financial Group and former chair of the National Association of Securities Dealers. Elson also sits on The Conference Board Governance Center Advisory Board and sat on the Advisory Group for the Center’s Task Force on Executive Compensation in 2009.

The report, which was sponsored by the Columbia Business School and the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics and funded with a grant from The Rockefeller Foundation, was designed to “show how boards can fulfill their potential in various critical areas.” The report goes on to state, “After discussing dozens of general governance topics, we identified seven core problems. Then we drew solutions from the laboratory of real life, based on our own experience.” (continue reading… )