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22 Feb 2012
News

Avon Board Said to Debate Firing Jung Before Keeping as Chairman

October 2015
Case

Transpower New Zealand: Evaluating Board Performance

By: Boris Groysberg, Paul M. Healy and Sarah L. Abbott

Mark Verbiest, Chairman of Transpower New Zealand, initiated a performance review of Transpower's board of directors. The review, which took four months to complete, provided board members with individualized feedback on their performance, as well as information on how... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Performance Evaluation; Governance; Leadership; Performance; Organizations; Human Resources; Decision Making; New Zealand

June 2014 (Revised March 2017)
Teaching Note

Chorus and Telecom: Building the Boards

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2011, Telecom, the largest telecom provider in New Zealand, was being divided into two publicly traded companies. In connection with this split, Sarah Naudé and Matt Stanley worked with the chairman of Telecom New Zealand, Wayne Boyd, to create two new boards of... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Women's Empowerment; Governance; Leadership; Selection and Staffing; Organizational Structure; Decision Making; Human Resources; Diversity; Telecommunications Industry; New Zealand

July 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Supplement

United Rentals (B)

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kathleen Durante

In April 2012, Jenne Britell, the Chairman of the board of directors of United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI) was preparing her notes for an upcoming stockholders' meeting. It was a meeting unlike most other meetings she had chaired. Stockholders were about to vote on a... View Details

Keywords: Boards Of Directors; Board Committees; Chairman; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Construction Industry; North America

January 2013 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Chorus and Telecom: Building the Boards (A)

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2011, Sarah Naudé and Matt Stanley sat down with the chairman of Telecom New Zealand, Wayne Boyd. Telecom, a publicly listed company and the largest telecom provider in New Zealand, was being divided into two publicly traded companies, Chorus, a telecom... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Women's Empowerment; Governance; Leadership; Selection and Staffing; Organizational Structure; Decision Making; Human Resources; Diversity; Telecommunications Industry; New Zealand

27 Aug 2018
News

Tesla needs experienced automobile experts say former Medtronic Chairman

November 2009 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Board Leadership at Entergy Corporation

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Melissa Barton

Wayne Leonard became CEO of Entergy in 1999. After serving as CEO for close to eight years, the Entergy Board named Leonard Chairman and CEO. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leadership

10 Jan 2017
News

Sir David Clementi Named BBC Chairman

(Getty Images) (Getty Images) Sir David Clementi (MBA 1975), former deputy governor of the Bank of England and former chairman of Prudential, has been confirmed as the next chairman of the BBC. Clementi led... View Details

Keywords: Arts, Entertainment

01 Feb 2001
News

Advisory Boards Help HBS Assess and Attain Its Goals

independent sounding board and provides informal advice on the direction of the School. Chairman C.D. ("Dick") Spangler, Jr. (MBA '56), president emeritus of The University of North Carolina, finds his work... View Details

Keywords: Elena N. Berg; boards; alumni; planning; leadership; advice; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

September 2006 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Board of Directors of Medtronic, Inc.

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Alexis Chernak

The board of directors of Medtronic, Inc., a company known for its commitment to effective corporate governance, must prepare for the departure of Chairman and CEO Bill George and the retirement of four long-time directors. The company had experienced rapid growth in... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Succession; Organizational Culture

October 2019
Case

A Conversation with Ellen J. Kullman, Chairman & CEO of DuPont, 2009-2015

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Ellen J. Kullman, the retired Chairman and CEO of DuPont, describes how she guided the storied science and technology company through a contentious proxy battle with activist investor Trian Partners, which acquired DuPont shares in 2013 and sought to break up the... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Institutional Investing; Leadership; Leadership Style; Management; Transformation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Chemical Industry; United States

May 2014 (Revised January 2015)
Case

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board

By: Julie Battilana and Michael Norris

In 2014, as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) has just brought former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on as chairman of the board, Jean Rogers, founder and CEO struggles with how best to ensure the nonprofit's financial sustainability while... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainability Reporting; Reporting; Environmental Sustainability; Accounting; Accounting Industry; United States

01 Jun 2010
News

M.I.A. Boards

Ideally, a board of directors is informed, active, and offers sound advice while maintaining a collegial but challenging relationship with the company’s CEO. In reality, some 61 percent of CEOs at our largest companies also serve as View Details

Keywords: John Gillespie;David Zweig; Finance

13 Aug 2013
News

Bill Ackman Resigns From J.C. Penney Board

01 Dec 2000
News

A Trusty Board

leadership skills to work as trustees. In fact, each of the people interviewed for this article works with a board member (or several) who is an HBS graduate. Witness John McCarter's answer to how he ended up at the Field Museum: "Two... View Details

Keywords: Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions; Arts, Entertainment

March 2019
Case

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (Abridged)

By: Julie Battilana and Michael Norris

In 2014, as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) has just brought former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on as chairman of the board, Jean Rogers, founder and CEO, struggles with how best to ensure the nonprofit’s financial sustainability while... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainability Reporting; Reporting; Environmental Sustainability; Accounting; Accounting Industry; United States

December 2010
Article

The Case for Professional Boards

By: Robert C. Pozen

When the world's largest financial institutions had to be rescued from insolvency in 2008, many experts laid the blame at the feet of corporate boards. But insufficient board oversight is a problem that had supposedly been solved in 2002. As the United States... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governing and Advisory Boards; Failure; Accounting Audits; Quality; Behavior; Legal Liability; Experience and Expertise; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Performance Effectiveness; United States

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