Understand your shareholders’ concerns and establish a productive dialogue.

Shareholder engagement expertise is a new element directors and boards are adding to their skills matrix. Since 2010, when institutional investors began meeting with compensation committees about say-on-pay votes, shareholder/board engagement has become more frequent, and now board members are being called on to address an unlimited range of topics.

Sheila Stamps
Director, IQVIA Holdings, Pitney Bowes Inc., 
MFA Financial Inc., Atlas Air Holdings Inc. 

We asked current and past Directors & Boards and Private Company Director Directors to Watch to define their most urgent challenges as their companies ­— and the world — move from one crisis to the next. Here’s what they had to say.

Opponents of legislated gender and diversity targets score a hollow victory.

Proposed rules demand director action on cybersecurity and climate.

Use the proxy to highlight your strengths in human capital management.

Books currently being recommended for corporate board members are typically about emerging governance issues like ESG and DEI, and the board member’s bookshelf is usually filled with deeper dives into topics like risk management and M&A. Rarely does a book come along that, while intended for general readership, is also of particular interest for board members.

Corporate chieftains — notably those who gather each year in Davos, Switzerland — may think they live in a world where countries with interdependent economies and companies with interconnected markets operate as if there were no borders. The notion that these connections would ensure both global prosperity and universal peace was shattered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

For many years, I’ve been asked the same question: “Does good corporate governance really matter?” And for years I’ve replied, “Yes.” Now I have more to add. After nearly two decades of service, I recently retired from the Encompass Health board as our term limits required. Four other directors who joined the board at roughly the same time also departed.

Boards and companies ignore DEI concerns at their own peril.