Media, SEC members, attorneys, business leaders and academics to examine impact of corporate governance reforms Sept. 29-Oct. 1

Over the past five years, corporate governance has undergone historic changes. In addition to new policies enacted by state judiciaries and attorneys general, Congress adopted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enacted important securities law reforms, and the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ reformed listing standards. The world’s leading experts on corporate governance will come together to discuss the impact of these changes during a conference at Washington University in St. Louis Sept. 29 – Oct. 1.

Grasso pay package a case of bad corporate governance; study finds CEOs get paid for performance ‘after-the-fact’

Troubling new evidence on corporate governance and CEO pay.In 1980, the average CEO was paid around 40 times as much as the average worker, but the multiple is now above 400 for the largest U.S. companies. With such increases in top executive pay, including New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso’s $139.5 million retirement-pay package, an expert on executive compensation says that corporate governance practices should come under even greater scrutiny. Todd Milbourn, Ph.D., a professor of finance at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, has recently documented other troubling evidence with regard to the efficacy of corporate governance and CEO pay.

Regulatory challenges facing U.S. equity markets are highly complex; speedy resolution is imperative for the survival of many markets

PanchapagesanThe issues that confront the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. equity markets are highly complex and while the SEC has not set a timetable to resolve these issues, Venkatesh Panchapagesan, Ph.D., a professor of finance at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, says that speedy resolution is imperative for the survival of many markets.