Joele Frank and Anne Chapman: Strategic Communications, Activism, and Governance
Description
(0:00 ) Intro to this episode
(1:34 ) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.
(2:21 ) Start of interview
(3:19 ) Joele Frank's origin story
(5:02 ) Anne Chapman's origin story
(8:41 ) The history and focus of the firm Joelle Frank (now has ~250 people, with offices in NYC and SF).
(12:46 ) Shareholder activism in today's market
(15:52 ) The Exxon Mobil activism case [see E28 with Aiesha Mastagni from CalSTRS, starting at 23:27 ]
(18:17 ) Say-on-Pay and Executive Compensation Dynamics "compensation is a real emotional topic"
(21:27 ) On mega grants.
(23:17 ) The evolution of M&A in shareholder activism
(25:44 ) Geopolitical Tensions in the Boardroom. Examples: US Steel (Golden share by US), MP Materials (10% equity stake).
(28:38 ) Evolution of ESG/DEI, including boardroom diversity.
(33:00 ) AI, PBCs, and Governance Challenges. Is it a bubble? Concern about ethical AI.
(38:35 ) Case Study: Norfolk's Proxy Fight. Digital component to increase retail component of the vote.
(44:14 ) How activists are proposing more qualified directors to boards (focus on individual directors post universal proxy rules).
(48:50 ) The Changing Landscape of Board Composition
(49:55 ) The Importance of Board Evaluations
(51:45 ) On the "stay private or go public" debate
Joele Frank is the founder and Managing Partner of Joele Frank. Anne Chapman is a Managing Director at Joele Frank.
You can follow Evan on social media at:
X: @evanepstein
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/
Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/
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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
United States
