Description: Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn has been ousted for financial misconduct. This is shocking news for the man credited with turning the company around. The details of the investigation have not been made public, but one aspect seems to be a under reporting of Ghosn’s compensation. Ghosn has been arrested along with a Nissan director… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Corporate Governance
Fighting Corruption
Description: December 9 was International Anti-Corruption Day. The United Nations website tells us that each year $1 trillion is paid in bribes around the globe while thieves make off with $2.6 trillion stolen through various corrupt methods. These figures far outstrip the amount of development aid targeted to nations. Date: December 9, 2017 Source: un.org… Read more »
How do we change the culture?
Description: This past week a study revealed that only 5% of Canadian tech companies have been founded by females. A similar 5% have a female CEO with females representing only 13% of the executive team. Further, 53% of these tech companies had no female executives. About a month ago, the Canadian Security Administrators released a… Read more »
Gambling on governance at ALC
Description: Cooperation between governments is a good thing. And in Atlantic Canada, the four provinces have cooperated for years as shareholders in one gambling organization, the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC). This week, however, an audit report issued by the four auditors general of the Atlantic provinces concluded that the four provinces need to do a… Read more »
Corporate governance at MEC
Description: Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) has responded to concern from its members and scrapped certain criteria it had proposed for its board members. Given its role as a major retailer, MEC wanted board members who had governance or management experience in large and complex organizations. But this upset MEC’s members who appealed to the principle… Read more »
Voting power
Description: The Canadian federal government is on its way to giving shareholders increased power to vote against a board director. Under the rules right now, voters can only withhold a vote for a nominee they are unhappy with. This means, theoretically, that a “bad” director could be elected with a single vote if all other… Read more »
Wells Fargo Woes
Description: Not too many people would have wanted to be in the shoes of Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf last week as he faced a grilling from US politicians over his bank’s tactics. Employees had been accused of opening customer accounts without their clients’ knowledge in an effort to meet sales targets. In cases, Stumpf conceded,… Read more »
MEC changes gears
Description: Mountain Equipment Co-op, better known perhaps by its signature letters MEC, is a much admired Canadian co-operative. Members can still join for simply putting down $5 for a share. But recently some members have been concerned that MEC seems to be shifting its governance profile to be more corporate like, meaning that some members… Read more »
Chip Wilson Exits
Description: This past week, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson left the board of the popular clothing retailer. Wilson has joined the a competitor clothing company founded by Shannon, his wife, and J.J., his son. This new company, Kit and Ace, appears set to compete with Lululemon in the high-end clothing market. Source: Globe and Mail.com Date: … Read more »
Modernizing shareholder governance
Description: Last Thursday Canadian Securities Administrators labelled the shareholders’ voting system in Canada “antiquated and fragmented”. This “antiquated and fragmented” approach has lead to miscounts in votes by shareholders at corporate meetings, generating complaints that more votes are cast than the number of outstanding shares in the company. Handling of proxy votes appears to be… Read more »
Understanding Financial Accounting
Intermediate Accounting, 13th Edition
Financial Accounting, 8th Edition
Auditing: A Practical Approach, 4th Edition
Managerial Accounting, 6th Edition
Accounting Principles, 9th Edition