Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

Suzanne Brown: The NYSE Board Diversity Initiative.

Episode Summary

Suzanne Brown leads NYSE's effort to place more diverse candidates on corporate and private company boards. In one year, she grew the candidate network from 200 to 700 CEO-vetted, diverse candidates and has helped place close to 40 candidates on corporate boards. In this podcast, we talk about NYSE's ESG programs. We also address the ESG backlash, board dynamics (particularly generational shifts), and progress on board diversity. Further, we discuss the state of the markets and other governance trends including board evaluations and demand for directors with expertise on supply chain, cybersecurity, climate change, and more. If you like this show, please consider subscribing, leaving a review or sharing this podcast on social media. You can also contribute as a Patron on the link patreon.com/BoardroomGovernancePod or you can subscribe to the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at evanepstein.substack.com

Episode Notes

0:00 -- Intro.

1:43 -- Start of interview.

2:11 -- Suzanne's "origin story" "One of my proudest jobs was working with the NJ Pandemic Relief Fund"

14:12 -- Joining the NYSE Board Diversity Initiative. *reference to Chief ("the only private membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders")

15:22 -- Three key NYSE ESG Initiatives:

The NYSE Sustainability Advisory Council (tackling the "E" in ESG)
The NYSE/Syndio collaboration (tackling the "S" in ESG)
The NYSE Advisory Board Council (tackling the "G" in ESG). It was created to help identify and place diverse candidates to serve on boards (*it has placed 38 board candidates, as of the date of this recording).
1. Council: 25 members ("it launched in 2019 with 16 CEOs of the NYSE")
2. Candidates: ~700 CEO vetted candidates.
3. Companies: all ~2,400 NYSE listed companies + private PE/VC backed companies.

25:04 -- On placing directors on cross-listed (international) companies. "Over 15% of our candidates are international"

26:39 -- On the impact of SB-826, AB-979 and other board diversity efforts. "Intentionality [on this topic] works"

28:47 -- On the ESG and DEI backlash. "ESG really suffers from a branding problem."

31:46 -- Board dynamics, age and generational shifts in the boardroom. "The avg age of directors has remained at 64 years old."

33:57 -- On the evolution and trends in board diversity. On the "pipeline falacy."

36:33-- Current state of capital markets. History of the NYSE.

40:27 -- Other corporate governance trends: term limits, board evaluations ("it's what you do with it afterwards"), global supply chain, green energy transition and cybersecurity expertise. *reference to E107 with David Larcker and Brian Tayan

46:00 -- Books that have greatly influenced her life:

Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605 and 1615)
Start with Why by Simon Sinek (2009)

47:54 -- Her mentors, and what she learned from them: "it's more of a collective with other women."

48:41 -- Quotes she thinks of often or lives her life by: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it's the courage to carry on that counts." Winston Churchill.

49:18 -- An unusual habit or an absurd thing that he loves: "I love to research obscure dogs."

51:35 -- The living person she most admires: Jimmy Carter.

Suzanne Brown currently leads the NYSE's effort to place more diverse candidates on corporate and private company boards.

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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