Welcome to the Boardroom Governance Podcast. I’m your host, Evan Epstein. In this episode, I talk with Peter Gleason, the President and CEO of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Peter is a recognized expert on board leadership and corporate governance issues. Before joining NACD, Peter was a management consultant with both Ernst & Young and Pritchett & Associates. Prior, he served as Vice President and Director of U.S. Research for Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). In this podcast, we talk about the origin and mission of NACD, its board certification process and the Future of the American Board Report. We also address the evolution of U.S. public company governance in the last 30 years, ESG, the increasing polarization of governance, universal proxy cards and large institutional investors passing through voting power to their beneficial owners. In addition, we tackle private company governance, dual-class shares and other issues relevant for corporate directors as we closed on 2022. If you like this show, please consider subscribing, leaving a review or sharing this podcast on social media. You can find all the show notes on the website boardroom-governance.com and please feel free to subscribe to the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at evanepstein.substack.com
0:00 -- Intro.
1:31 -- Start of interview.
1:57 -- Peter's "origin story".
2:40 -- His career prior to NACD, including at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). Peter joined NACD in 2000.
4:52 -- On the origin and mission of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Founded in 1977 by John Nash. Today the organization has grown to 23,000+ members.
7:02 -- About the NACD Directorship Certification (created three years ago). About 2,800 candidates have registered, and about ~1,100 have graduated with the certification.
10:38 -- On the evolution of corporate governance in the last 30 years from his vantage point. “Everything has changed [about boards] – it used to be more of an honorary position, we look it now as a profession with accountability and expectations.” The precedent of the ISS corporate governance quotient (CGQ).
14:36 -- About NACD’s Future of the American Board Report: A Framework for Governing into the Future.
20:07 -- On NACD's Summit 2022 and lessons from 2022 from a corporate governance perspective. The impact of the pandemic and getting back to in-person events.
24:29 -- About NACD's 20 chapters throughout the US. Mostly in "NFL cities."
27:53 -- On ESG and the anti-ESG trend and the politicization of corporation governance.
30:30 -- On Institutional Investors passing-through voting power to beneficial owners, retail investors and the Universal Proxy Rule. A revolution in shareholder democracy?
41:01 -- On the increasing influence of private markets and its corporate governance implications. "From NACD's 23,000 members, about 8,000 are directors of private companies." There is a lot of informationsharing between public and private company directors.
43:49 -- On the challenges of founder-led private companies. The case of FTX.
47:20 -- On dual-class share structures (supermajority voting structures). "The NACD doesn't have an official position." The example of Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. On the role of the board in non-profits. "I always recommend to go get a few independent directors for boards, because they will tell you what they are thinking (unvarnished opinions) but you have to listen to their independent advice."
52:10 -- Focus on social issues (pressure on CEOs speaking out). The framework that CEOs and boards must use to communicate their positions.
55:39 - The books that have greatly influenced his life:
57:17 - His mentors, and what he learned from them.
59:32 - Quotes he thinks of often or live his life by.
1:00:59 - An unusual habit or an absurd thing that he loves: he watches TV to unwind (noise in the background).
1:01:52 - The living person he most admires: his mother and his wife.
Peter Gleason is the President and CEO of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).
__
You can follow the NACD on social media at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NACD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-association-of-corporate-directors/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/NACDVideos1
__
You can follow Evan on social media at:
Twitter: @evanepstein
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/
Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/
__
Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License