The University of Delaware’s John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance will host its 2018 Corporate Governance Symposium from 9:15 a.m. to 4:35 p.m., Tuesday, March 6, at Clayton Hall on UD’s Newark campus. Registration will open at 8:15 a.m.

“Governance Issues of Critical Importance to Boards and Investors” is designed to provide attendees with cutting-edge governance discussion and debate. It is co-sponsored by the Weinberg Center in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Finance in the Lerner College of Business and Economics.

The symposium is free to attend, but seating is limited and registration at this website is required by Feb. 27.

The event will feature experts in corporate governance, including an opening address/conversation, panel discussion, luncheon address/conversation and the presentation of two academic papers.

The symposium will begin with a conversation with the John L. Weinberg Distinguished Speaker, Ed Garden, chief investment officer and founding partner of Trian Fund Management LP.

His address will be followed by a panel focusing on the most critical governance issues for boards and investors in 2018. Scheduled participants are:

• Donna F. Anderson, vice president and head of global corporate governance, T. Rowe Price;

• Lydia I. Beebe, director, Kansas City Southern and Aemetis Inc.; retired corporate secretary and chief governance officer, Chevron Corp.; and principal, LIBB Advisors;

• Glenn Booraem, investment stewardship officer, Vanguard;

• Margaret M. Foran, chief governance officer, senior vice president and corporate secretary, Prudential Financial Inc.;

• Michael Garland, assistant comptroller - corporate governance and responsible investment, Office of New York City Comptroller;

• David A. Katz, partner, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz;

• Patrick S. McGurn, managing director, special counsel and head of strategic research and analysis, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc.;

• Eric Shostal, vice president, investment stewardship team, BlackRock;

• Myron T. Steele, partner, Potter Anderson and Corroon LLP, and former chief justice, Delaware Supreme Court; and

• Carol J. Ward, vice president and corporate secretary, Mondelēz International Inc.

Charles M. Elson, Edgar S. Woolard Jr. Chair of Corporate Governance, director of the Weinberg Center and professor of finance at UD, will moderate the panel discussion.

The symposium will continue with lunch and an interview with Karen L. Valihura, justice of the Delaware Supreme Court. She will be interviewed by Margaret M. Foran, chief governance officer, senior vice president and corporate secretary at Prudential Financial Inc.

The event will conclude with the presentation of two academic papers on topics that are of critical importance to boards and institutional investors today:

• “Beyond the Numbers: Substantive Gender Diversity in Boardrooms,” by Yaron Nili, assistant professor of law, University of Wisconsin Law School (the presenter), with Laura Field, Donald J. Puglisi Professor of Finance and chairperson of the Department of Finance in UD’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics; and

• “The Importance of Inferior Voting Rights in Dual-Class Firms,” by Dov Solomon, associate professor of corporate law, the College of Law and Business, Ramat Gan Law School (the presenter), with Albert Choi, Albert C. BeVier Research Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law.

More about the symposium

Those attending the Corporate Governance Symposium can receive Delaware CLE, as well as CPE credits, which are provided by the event partner, Sallie Mae.

For more information about the event, contact Louisa Cresson, research adviser with the Weinberg Center, at lcresson@udel.edu.