Securities regulators may agree on the need to improve issuers’ diversity disclosure, but they can’t agree on how to achieve it. A public consultation on the issue so far isn’t building consensus. In April, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) proposed changes to corporate governance requirements, publishing two approaches for expanding diversity disclosures beyond gender. The Ontario […]

“Any organization governed by a board of directors must strive to constitute a board that is both legitimate and credible.”[1] A board’s credibility is indispensable to its effectiveness and “[its] credibility is measured not only by its in-depth knowledge of the company’s industry and its markets, of its business model, and its value-creation drivers, but […]

Diversity and inclusion notions have come to the forefront in recent years, and the issues of board representation have extended well beyond gender. Pressures on boards to display diversity are multiple. Some classes of institutional investors are outspoken in this regard, using their shareholder clout to demand change. It is primarily on the premise that […]

In June 2009, IGOPP published a Policy Paper on “The Status of Women on Boards of Directors in Canada: Calling for Change”. Almost 12 years later, the issue of diversity on boards of directors still remains partly unresolved. Indeed, women’s representation on boards of directors has doubled during this period [from 15% in 2008 to […]

As a longtime member of the Association of Correspondents Tracking the War On Corporations, I have embedded with troops of lawyers, activists and corporate officials through the great battles of the last several decades. From the failure to ward off the stakeholder invasion of the 1990s to the great executive retreat at the Battle of […]

Anne-Marie Croteau, IGOPP Board member, starts as dean of the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) on June 1, 2017, and will become the first female dean of JMSB, one of North America’s largest and leading business schools. A professor in the Department of Supply Chain and Business Technology Management, she is a highly respected academic leader […]

[ … ] a growing body of academic research has confirmed that short-term financial activists are a major contributor to systemic short-termism in managing businesses and investments. The notion that activist attacks increase, rather than undermine, long-term value creation has been resoundingly discredited. Economists Yvan Allaire and François Dauphin, for example, demonstrated in a series […]

Board members with extensive experience readily observe, and often comment, that the quality of governance and a board’s effectiveness result as much from subtle, dynamic, intangible factors as from strict observance of the fiduciary and formal aspects of governance. These factors take shape in social interaction among members, in the style of the Chair’s leadership, […]

The Institute for Governance (IGOPP) is pleased to announe the appointment of Ms. Isabelle Courville as a new board member. Ms. Courville, an engineer and a lawyer by training, is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Laurentian Bank of Canada. Previously, Ms. Courville was President of Hydro‐Québec Distribution. This division has 7,000 employees serving […]

The Institute for Governance (IGOPP) submitted his comments to Industry Canada in response to the Consultation on the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA).. We will examine these issues individually to formulate specific recommendations in each case. In its comment document, the IGOPP covered the following topics: Shareholder advisory votes on compensation packages Diversity of board […]

The Institute for Governance (IGOPP) submitted his comments to Industry Canada in response to the Consultation on the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA).. We will examine these issues individually to formulate specific recommendations in each case. In its comment document, the IGOPP covered the following topics: Shareholder advisory votes on compensation packages Diversity of board […]

Chaviva Hošek is currently a Professor in the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto. Between 2001 and 2012 she served as President and CEO of The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Prior to that she was Director of Policy and Research in the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada, […]

In 2010, only 14.4% of directors of the 100 largest Canadian publicly-listed corporations were women. In the same year, roughly 7% of board members were new and in only one-in-five instances was the new member female, according to the 2010 Spencer Stuart Board Index. Even to a patient, passive observer, that rate of change is […]

In a new report the IGPPO recently assessed the progress of governance modernization efforts in Quebec state-owned corporations since the establishment of modern rules and new disclosure norms five years ago. According to the report, Quebec-government owned corporations have conformed well to the disclosure provisions of Bill 53, which was adopted in 2006. However the […]

In a report the IGPPO recently assessed the progress of governance modernization efforts in Quebec state-owned corporations since the establishment of modern rules and new disclosure norms five years ago. According to the report, Quebec-government owned corporations have conformed well to the disclosure provisions of Bill 53, which was adopted in 2006. However the IGPPO […]

In 2010, 14.4% of board members of the 100 largest Canadian publicly listed corporations were women. During the year 2010, roughly 7% of these board members were replaced and for one in five cases by a woman. (Source: Spencer, Stuart, Corporate Board Report, 2010). Even to a patient, passive observer, it is clear that the […]