Recent Governance & Ethics News

March/April 2007

• Nonprofits Adopting Sarbanes-Oxley

---

Nonprofits Adopting Sarbanes-Oxley (2/26/07) - PhilanthropyJournal


Throughout the U.S., nonprofits are strengthening their reporting and governance policies to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley law Congress enacted in 2002 in the face of corporate scandals like those at Enron and WorldCom.

While some provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley apply to publicly-held companies and nonprofits alike, a growing number of nonprofits are adopting other provisions that apply only to publicly-held firms because rising expectations from donors and nonprofit trade groups, and in anticipation that state and federal lawmakers and regulators might require nonprofits to comply with the law.

Read the article

Back to top

---

January/February 2007

• New Survey Predicts 2007 Will Set Record for CFO Turnover



• Options-Toll Rises as Corporate Lawyers Retire, Quit



• The SEC's Sarbanes-Oxley Fix Needs Fixing



• In Call to Deregulate Business, a Global Twist (1/25/07) - Post-gazette.com



• Founder of Netscape and Silicon Graphics Talks about Burdens of Sarbanes-Oxley



• Rewarding Corporate Honesty

---

New Survey Predicts 2007 Will Set Record for CFO Turnover (2/20/07) - Yahoo! Finance


Shareholders and board members should prepare for record turnover among Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in 2007, according to a new survey from executive services firm Tatum, LLC. Data from the survey suggests that compliance headaches such as Sarbanes-Oxley requirements and unrealistic demands from board members and CEOs will drive more than 2,300 CFOs from their positions in 2007.

Read the article

Back to top

---

Options-Toll Rises as Corporate Lawyers Retire, Quit (2/15/07) - Bloomberg.com


Investigations into whether U.S. companies violated laws in granting stock options to top executives are leading to the resignations of key advisers on the awards: corporate lawyers.

Chief in-house attorneys and general counsels at Apple Inc., Monster Worldwide Inc. and at least 12 other companies that said they were looking into their handling of options have resigned or been dismissed in the past eight months. At issue is whether some option grants were backdated.

Read the article

Back to top

---

The SEC's Sarbanes-Oxley Fix Needs Fixing (2/8/07) - American Enterprise Institute


Alex Pollock, Resident Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, addressed the National Economist Club on Sarbanes-Oxley reform. He argued that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is bad for investors and for the international competitiveness of American business and American capital markets, and articulated how it has weakened America's international competitive advantage particularly in social infrastructure. He proposed fundamental changes to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and identified possible obstacles to its reform. In closing, he underscored the need for reforms, realizing that although reform has started, it has a long way to go.

Read the article

Back to top

---

In Call to Deregulate Business, a Global Twist (1/25/07) - Post-gazette.com


Prominent figures in the United States are warning that the nation's financial markets have been handicapped by post-Enron regulatory overreach. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has made addressing the problem a signature political issue. A blue-ribbon committee chaired by former Bush economist Glenn Hubbard has echoed this sentiment, as does a report commissioned by Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Read the article

Return to top

---

Founder of Netscape and Silicon Graphics Talks about Burdens of Sarbanes-Oxley (1/19/07) - BusinessWeek.com

Many executives will complain in private about the mounting restrictions they face running a public company these days, from the hassles of Sarbanes-Oxley to the regulations in place at U.S. stock exchanges. But few are as frank as Jim Clark, the legendary founder of Netscape and Silicon Graphics. When Clark submitted his letter of resignation as chairman of photography Web site Shutterfly only three months after its initial public offering (IPO), he made it clear that with all the new rules, he just wasn't able to play the role he wanted to.

Read the article

Back to top

---

Rewarding Corporate Honesty (1/2/07) - Boston Globe


Small public companies have been bristling under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the post-Enron law intended to restore trust in corporate financial reporting. The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to relieve these small companies of some of the act's requirements. Presumably, the costs imposed on these corporations outweigh the benefits to investors, so some recalibration seems appropriate.

But as the SEC considers which changes to Sarbanes-Oxley might be in order, it has a chance to do something else: reward honest corporations, large and small, for their good behavior.

Read the article

Back to top

 

December 2006 Governance & Ethics News
October/November 2006 Governance & Ethics News
August/September 2006 Governance & Ethics News
June/July 2006 Governance & Ethics News