Effective corporate governance more important than ever
21st annual report
Corporate Governance & Executive Compensation 2023
What’s in this survey report from Shearman & Sterling:
Shearman & Sterling’s annual survey tracks the impact of changing practices, trends and regulatory developments on key areas of corporate governance and executive compensation. Given the breadth of data collected by the survey, the report can serve as a benchmark for public company directors and executives to assess their governance practices.
“The importance of effective corporate governance continues to grow as directors, executives and corporate secretaries contend with the growing importance of technological advancements, such as AI and the climate change,” said Gillian Emmett Moldowan, partner at Shearman & Sterling. “The increased focus on regulation and disclosures make understanding and implementing governance best practices vitally important to boards and the companies they serve.”
Key major finding and research areas from this year’s report include:
- 25% increase in the number of top 100 companies with a director specifically identified as having cybersecurity experience; 70 companies compared to 56 in 2022.
- 42% jump in the number of top 100 companies to disclose director-specific diversity information; increased to 61 companies from 43 in 2022.
- The percentage of the total number of board seats at the top 100 companies held by women remained flat at 34% in 2023, and the number of boards of the top 100 companies led by a chair that is a woman dropped from 15 to 11 in 2023, but more than 80% of the top 100 companies have a board with more than 25% woman directors.
