cgr15_61

Director Education

By Michelle Tan

To date Canadian corporate directors have been left to their own devices in obtaining the knowledge and skills required to be an effective director. While numerous organizations of varying expertise and end-goals have staged conferences and seminars aimed at this topic, until now a comprehensive training program has not been available to directors. Now two major director education initiatives are set to compete to fill in the gaps in director knowledge, experience and expertise.
The ICD Corporate Governance College is a partnership between the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. This college was formed with the mandate to “enlighten both seasoned directors and next generation directors on current best practices on corporate governance and relevant boardroom skills, with the objective of exceeding governance standards

Season’s Greetings

All of us at Fairvest wish you and your loved ones a joyous festive season, and a healthy and prosperous 2004!
We have continued our tradition of making a donation to a local charity in lieu of sending holiday cards this year.
We would like to extend our thanks to you, our clients, for your continued support.
Your subscriptions to the Proxy Review Service, Agency Voting Service and Corporate Governance Review
are very much appreciated.

P.1 Fairvest compares two new
director education programs in Canada.
P.4 OECD’s new draft guidelines raise the bar and shift some of the onus of governance reform onto shareholders as owners.
P.6 Shareholder proposal at Open Text gives us the opportunity to show how far women directors have come over the last five years.
P.8 The symptoms of trouble at Hollinger go back, way back.
P.10 Governance News – New disclosure standards for employee pensions delayed; New Canadian auditor standards promoting independence; SHARE’s annual proxy vote survey highlights the range of investment management attitudes toward proxy voting; Financial aid to Kenya includes corporate governance training; ECGI announces a new competition.
P.13 Company News Briefs - Poison pill update; Noisy departures from a sampling of newspaper headlines; Canico proposes an evergreen feature to its option plan; Spencer Stuart study tracks increasing director compensation; John Hunkin, CEO of CIBC announces his intent to exercise options, New investment product – movie IPOs.