Forum for Corporate Directors

The FCD Program Committee is charged with delivering innovative programs with leading governance experts who can provide insight into recent events.  We take pride in featuring nationally recognized thought leaders and have several exciting programs scheduled in the coming months.  To get a view of the high quality, depth and consistency of programs FCD produces, take a look at some of our recent speakers...

• Nell Minow, founder of The Corporate Library, who spoke at the Governance Outlook on July 25 - this special event was held in the beautiful new Kennedy Wing of the Bowers Museum. Results of FCD's survey of over 200 corporate directors in Southern California were released at the event. The survey document includes useful data on trends and practices in governance as well as in-depth case studies of some notable local companies; it also contains very valuable information from the most recent proxy statement submissions. Ms. Minow's comments related some recent governance anecdotes as well as a forecast of likely "hot" issues on the horizon for corporate directors.
• Jim Mazzo, Chairman, President, and CEO of Advanced Medical Optics, spoke at our June 26 breakfast and treated the audience to insight on his strategy for building a board that mentors the key executives in this rapidly growing enterprise.

• Scott Flanders, Chief Executive Officer of Freedom Communications, shared his journey from independent director to the executive office at the third largest U.S.-family-controlled media giant. It was a revealing story about his very personal trip up and down the executive corridors of this dynamic and progressive company. Scott discribed the dramatic changes in the composition of the Board, as well as what it's like to have investors and family owners sitting at the same table.  He also addressed the industry challenges affecting not only Freedom but all media companies.

• Prof. Jay Lorsch of the Harvard School of Business, a distinguished leader and nationally recognized expert in the area of corporate governance, Professor Lorsch is the Chairman of the Harvard Business School Global Corporate Governance Initiative as well as Faculty Chairman of the Executive Education Corporate Governance Series. He spoke on The State of the Boardroom 2007: What Directors are Thinking About and What They SHOULD be Thinking About. Prof. Lorsch covered a range of issues directors are concerned about, placing them in perspective of validity, seriousness, and historical persistence. He also disclosed the issues he believes are coming up on boardroom agendas and engaged in a lively Q&A session.

• John Hueston, the former lead prosecutor for the Department of Justice on the Enron trials of Skilling and Lay. In a fast-paced and engaging three-hour session, open to members only, Mr. Hueston led us behind the scenes of the Enron investigation and trial. His presentation shared the lessons in corporate governance and internal investigation to be learned from the government's case against the fraud and conspiracy that laid low what was once the 7th largest company in our country.

•  Charles Elson, the Edgar S. Woolard Jr. Chair in Corporate Governance and Director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. Mr. Elson is  one of the country's leading authorities on matters of executive compensation and corporate governance.  He has testified before Congress on executive pay, lectures widely on the subject, and chairs the compensation committee of a public company. In his presentation on the topic of Executive Compensation Reform: A Board-Based Solution, he spoke about whether corporate America is appropriately compensating its executives, and what we - - and compensation committees - - can and should do about it.  He presented judicial, disclosure and taxation-based solutions, ultimately proposing that a board-based solution may indeed be most effective.

• Chancellor William C. Chandler, Chancellor Chandler presides over the nation's business court, the Delaware Court of Chancery. In this court the most important legal decisions on the topics of director responsibility and corporate governance make business history and shape the boardrooms of the future. His 180 page opinion In Re The Walt Disney Co. contains both a scathing critique of Disney's boardroom performance and the reassurance of a decision that, while directors should be doing their utmost to achieve ideals in governance, the ultimate standard for their actions remains "to act in good faith."  His dinner presentation also served as the keynote of FCD's Directors Institute.