Investors Panel on Board Performance (Part 3)

What happens when you put a group of the world's largest investors in front of a live audience of board members and corporate secretaries? You get communication. Communication is key to better understanding how the other side feels and how they form their views. That's exactly the goal of the Board Performance Review series.

Inside America's Boardrooms brings you the third episode of the Investor Board Performance Review, a platform that allows investors, activists, and proxy advisors to share how they feel about corporate directors and boardroom issues. In our final edition of the 2016 series, we welcome:

Panelists

• Michelle Edkins - Managing Director & Global Head of Investment Stewardship, BlackRock
• Aeisha Mastagni - Portfolio Manager, Corporate Governance, California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS)
• Greg Taxin - Managing Member, Spotlight Advisors, LLC.
  
  

Following the familiar format of first and second editions of this series, Host TK Kerstetter probes the BlackRock, CalSTRS, and Spotlight Advisors, LLC., for their candid responses during this live audience session. Questions and topics discussed include:

Q: What are boards doing well? What do they still need to improve on?

Covering topics ranging from shareholder engagement to board composition, panelists generally agreed in their performance assessments of corporate boards. Board refreshment-in particular, the seemingly lax effort to replace ineffective directors-garnered even more discussion than it has in past episodes.

Q: What expectations do these major investors have surrounding shareholder engagement?

Not only do we hear from institutional investing giants BlackRock and CalSTRS on the ''Who? What? When?'' of shareholder engagement, but Greg Taxin offers a shareholder activist's perspective. Taxin outlines the two most common mistakes board are making when it comes to engaging with shareholders.

Q: Looking into the future, what should boards expect on the road ahead?

Looking one to three years ahead, each panelist makes predictions on the board governance landscape-detailing what directors must do if they wish not to fall behind.