Useful Corporate Governance Web sites Definitions

Institutional Investors/Investor Groups

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a voluntary federation of 55 national and international labor unions.

CalPERS provides retirement and health benefits to approximately 1.5 million public employees, retirees, and their families and more than 2,500 employers.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) is the state agency that invests the assets of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS), State Investment Fund and  other state trust funds. The WRS Trust Funds make up about 90% of the assets managed by SWIB.  The impact of investment returns on WRS participants is determined by the Department of Employee Trust Funds (ETF) and is based on the rate of return as of December 31.  SWIB is directed by an independent Board of Trustees and staffed with professional money managers and support personnel.

For nearly 90 years, TIAA-CREF has been helping those in the academic, medical, cultural and research fields plan for and live in retirement. It does this with a full array of financial products and services to help people live to and through retirement and invest for life's other goals along the way. In keeping with its strong nonprofit heritage, it offers low fees, a long-term approach to investing, and a full line of financial products and services provided by consultants who never receive commissions. Instead, they are compensated primarily on how well they serve you, not what they sell you.

Proxy Advisory & Ratings

ISS provides corporate governance solutions that enhance the interaction between shareholders and companies, designed to help shareholders manage risk and drive value.

Founded in 1999 by world-renowned governance experts Robert A.G. Monks and Nell Minow, The Corporate Library is the leading independent source for U.S. corporate governance and executive and director compensation information and analysis.  It provides information resources and products that include the most comprehensive collection of corporate governance, executive/director compensation and company performance data ever assembled.

Founded in 2003, Glass, Lewis & Co., LLC is a leading investment research and proxy advisory firm focused on helping institutional investors make more informed investment and proxy voting decisions by identifying business, legal, fiduciary and financial statement risks at more than 11,000 companies worldwide.

Academic studies and investors' own experiences have taught Governance Metrics International there is a link between governance practices and investment risk. The problem for investors is how to measure governance practices across a large universe of companies, irrespective of domicile, in a cost-efficient way. GMI ratings for 3,800 companies, including complete coverage of the MSCI World and MSCI EAFE Index, are now available on a subscription basis.

The Investment Company Institute (ICI) is the national association of U.S. investment companies. Founded in 1940, its membership as of August 1, 2006 included 8,719 mutual funds, 653 closed-end funds, 211 exchange-traded funds, and five sponsors of unit investment trusts. Its mutual fund members serve 89.5 million individual shareholders and manage $9.225 trillion in investor assets. Membership in ICI is available to any SEC-registered investment company (open-end or closed-end), its investment adviser, and its underwriter.

The Institute engages in three core missions: encouraging adherence to high ethical standards by all industry participants; advancing the interests of funds, their shareholders, directors, and investment advisers; and promoting public understanding of mutual funds and other investment companies.

IRRC is the leading source of high quality, impartial information on corporate governance and social responsibility. Founded in 1972, IRRC provides proxy research and analysis, benchmarking products, as well as proxy voting services to more than 500 institutional investors, corporations, law firms, foundations, academics and other organizations. IRRC is unique in the industry as it does not advocate on any side of the issues it covers. Clients can be assured that IRRC data and analyses are objective and unbiased.

Journals, Newsletters & Blogs

A weekly newsletter on corporate governance, risk and compliance.

The vital importance of corporate governance to organizations around the world has been reflected in an explosion of research and writing in the field. Corporate Governance acts as a forum for the exchange of information, insights and knowledge based on both theoretical development and practical experience.  It is committed to facilitating knowledge, discussion and debate to facilitate the growth of corporate governance theory, to encourage more effective boards and to produce better directors in practice.

Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society will lead the international debate on board performance, corporate responsibility and CEO effectiveness through practical, real-world discussions and analysis of past, present and future concern. The journal will provide the most informed analysis, sound research, penetrating insights and practical case study experience available, whilst placing emphasis squarely on practicality and application in real world organizations. This will enable you to track new research findings and emerging trends and, through case study examples, assess how world-leading organizations are successfully addressing corporate governance issues. The journal's brief is wide ranging but the concerns are to integrate the challenges of people, profitability, planet and posterity under the umbrella of responsible corporate governance.

Directors & Boards is a quarterly journal dedicated to the topics of leadership and corporate governance. Its readers are at the very pinnacle of business -- board chairmen, CEOs and members of senior management, corporate board members, and board advisers.

Governance is a monthly newsletter authoritative, providing international news and analysis on corporate governance, boardroom performance and shareholder activism. It is essential reading for board directors, senior executives, investment professionals and their advisers.

Corporate Governance is a quarterly journal focusing on governance and ethics framework, role of boards, role of CEOs, CFOs and other senior management, role of other stakeholders, disclosure and transparency, regulation, and best practices.

The journal will publish high quality papers from a wide variety of disciplinary orientations on the general subject of business governance and ethics. The journal style and dialogue will be inclusive and attempt to involve all those who are interested in issues of business governance and ethics; business leaders, managers, employees, stockholders, business regulators (government agencies, national and international) consumer groups, and academics.

Journal of Management and Governance aims at being a "journal of ideas." It is devoted to the inquiry into the cognitive and relational foundations of governance, and into the analysis and design of governance structures and their relations with management, in the private as well as the public sector.

We are the leading independent consultancy in international corporate governance.

We publish the Global Proxy Watch newsletter, which sets the industry standard for up-to-the minute information.

We are the hub of a global network of experts.

Professional Organizations

The mission of the American Bar Association is to be the national representative of the legal profession, serving the public and the profession by promoting justice, professional excellence and respect for the law.

Founded in 1923, ALI has a membership consisting of judges, practicing lawyers, and legal scholars from all areas of the United States as well as some foreign countries, selected on the basis of professional achievement and demonstrated interest in the improvement of the law.

The Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and more than 10 million employees. Member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock markets and represent over 40 percent of all corporate income taxes paid. Collectively, they returned $112 billion in dividends to shareholders and the economy in 2005.

The Conference Board is the world's preeminent business membership and research organization. Best known for the Consumer Confidence Index and the Leading Economic Indicators, The Conference Board has, for over 90 years, equipped the world's leading corporations with practical knowledge through issues-oriented research and senior executive peer-to-peer meetings.

The purpose of Corporate Directors Forum is to help directors be better directors through education and peer networking. CDF’s core beliefs include: boards are strategic assets of corporations; education makes better directors; better directors make better boards; better boards make better corporation; and we can all learn a lot from each other.

The International Corporate Governance Network (“ICGN”) is an unincorporated, not-for-profit association under the laws of England and Wales. It has four primary purposes: to provide an investor-led network for the exchange of views and information about corporate governance issues internationally; to examine corporate governance principles and practices; to develop and encourage adherence to corporate governance standards and guidelines; and to generally promote good corporate governance.

Founded in 1977, the National Association of Corporate Directors is the only not-for-profit membership organization dedicated exclusively to serving the corporate governance needs of directors and boards.

The Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals, Inc. (the "Society"), founded in 1946 as the American Society of Corporate Secretaries, has over 3,800 members representing approximately 2,600 companies. Its members deal with public disclosure under the securities laws and matters affecting corporate governance, including the structure and meetings of the board of directors and its committees, the proxy process and the annual meeting of shareholders and shareholder relations, particularly with large institutional owners.

The Council of Institutional Investors is the premier U.S. shareowner-rights organization. It is a not-for-profit association of 130 public, labor, and corporate pension funds with assets exceeding $3 trillion. The Council works to educate members and the public about corporate governance, and to advocate for strong governance standards on issues ranging from executive compensation to the election of corporate directors.

Other Resources

BoardSource increases the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations by strengthening boards of directors through our highly acclaimed consulting practice, publications, tools, and membership program.

The Corporate Board, now in its 28th year, is the nation's leading journal of corporate governance, providing directors and senior officers with information vital to the efficiency and success of their governance actions.

Corporate Board Member serves as a resource for officers and directors of publicly traded corporations, top private companies, and Global 1000 firms.

Since 1995 the Corporate Governance site at CorpGov.net has facilitated the ability of institutional and individual shareowners to better govern corporations, enhancing both corporate accountability and the creation of wealth. News, links, commentary, corporate governance definitions and advocacy geared to the active investor. Browse its small reference library, join its NETwork, and subscribe to the publications of its stakeholders.

Directorship is committed to providing board directors with the information they need in this new era of corporate governance, through its magazine Directorship, Web site Directorship.com, Boardroom Forums, newsletters and daily news.

Recognizing the challenges that audit committees face in meeting their demanding responsibilities, KPMG created the Audit Committee Institute (ACI) in 1999 to serve as a resource for audit committee members and senior management. It’s primary mission is to communicate with audit committee members and enhance their awareness, commitment, and ability to implement effective audit committee processes.

Board Recruiting:

Board Recruiting, a NASDAQ product, is a sophisticated profile matching system designed to revolutionize the way that directors and boards meet while reducing the cost and the time required to make director appointments. This is the first Web portal solely dedicated to board recruiting, helping companies build their boards and meet the evolving needs of independence and diversity, in a cost-effective manner that allows the company to manage the search initiative. In addition, Board Recruiting is a global product, serving boards and directors across all demographics regardless of listing exchanges, market cap sizes and locations.

Global Corporate Governance Forum:

The Global Corporate Governance Forum is a multi-donor trust fund co-founded by the World Bank Group and the Organisation (sic) for Economic Co-operation and Development to promote global, regional, and local initiatives that aim to improve the institutional framework and practices of corporate governance, and housed in the joint IFC/World Bank Corporate Governance Department. The Forum promotes sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction within the framework of agreed international development targets.