Melissa Sawyer, S&C’s Global Head of M&A and Co-Head of the Corporate Governance Practice, was featured in the Agenda article “Directors Come Down from ‘Mt. Olympus’ in Universal Proxy Era.” The article discusses the growing emphasis on board composition and how companies are taking steps to increase investors’ access to information about board directors and director candidates, given the onset of the universal proxy rules and enhanced investor voting policies for director elections.
“There’s been an evolution away from the plain vanilla director bios of 20 years ago, which just listed where directors had worked,” Melissa notes. “Now this is focused on what can we say about experiences that they derived from those professional moments. […] With the advent of the universal proxy, it’s putting even more pressure on companies to try to demonstrate that each director brings something unique and important to the board.”
In the article, Melissa also notes that companies are leveraging other tools, such as video presentations and fireside chats, to offer in-depth overviews of board members and demonstrate the important attributes that each individual will bring to a board.
Read “Directors Come Down from ‘Mt. Olympus’ in Universal Proxy Era” here.