Insights
Managing Through a Historic Transition: The Board’s Oversight of Director Time Commitments
To better understand the challenges posed to boards navigating the historic shift to a more sustainable global economy, State Street Global Advisors’ Asset Stewardship team conducted an engagement campaign with directors standing at the helm. What follows is an overview of what we learned, our updated voting guidelines, and our expectations of Nominating Committees to oversee the material risks associated with director time commitments
Key Takeaways
- The global COVID-19 pandemic, an elevated culture of shareholder engagement and broadened expectations of material risk oversight have heightened the time commitment required to serve as a director on a public company board.
- Investors would benefit from increased transparency over how Nominating Committees assess their directors’ time commitments and what factors are included in this discussion.
- We are updating our voting policy and guidelines on directors’ commitments to ensure Nominating Committees evaluate their directors’ time commitments, regularly assess director effectiveness, and provide public disclosure on their policies and efforts to investors.