A board of directors is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organization, or a government agency.
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer, chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization – especially an independent legal entity such as a company or nonprofit institution. CEOs find roles in a range of organizations, including public and private corporations, non-profit organizations and even some government organizations. The CEO of a corporation or company typically reports to the board of directors and is charged with maximizing the value of the business, which may include maximizing the share price, market share, revenues or another element. In the non-profit and government sector, CEOs typically aim at achieving outcomes related to the organization's mission, usually provided by legislation. CEOs are also frequently assigned the role of main manager of the organization and the highest-ranking officer in the C-suite.
Corporate governance is defined, described or delineated in diverse ways, depending on the writer's purpose. Writers focused on a disciplinary interest or context often adopt narrow definitions that appear purpose-specific. Writers concerned with regulatory policy in relation to corporate governance practices often use broader structural descriptions. A broad (meta) definition that encompasses many adopted definitions is "Corporate governance” describes the processes, structures, and mechanisms that influence the control and direction of corporations."
Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global "Bulge Bracket" banks providing services in investment banking, private banking, asset management, and shared services. It is known for strict bank–client confidentiality and banking secrecy. The Financial Stability Board considers it to be a global systemically important bank. Credit Suisse is also primary dealer and Forex counterparty of the Fed.
TheStreet is a financial news and financial literacy website. It is a subsidiary of The Arena Group. The company provides both free content and subscription services such as Action Alerts Plus a stock recommendation portfolio co-managed by Bob Lang and Chris Versace.
A non-executive director, independent director or external director is a member of the board of directors of a corporation, such as a company, cooperative or non-government organization, but not a member of the executive management team. They are not employees of the corporation or affiliated with it in any other way and are differentiated from executive directors, who are members of the board who also serve, or previously served, as executive managers of the corporation. However they do have the same legal duties, responsibilities and potential liabilities as their executive counterparts.
Michael Francis Geoghegan CBE is an international banking business executive, who served as the chief executive (CEO) of HSBC from 26 March 2006 to 31 December 2010. He joined HSBC in 1973 and had previously led the group's South American and European operations.
Executive search is a specialized recruitment service which organizations pay to seek out and recruit highly qualified candidates for senior-level and executive jobs across the public and private sectors, as well as non-profit organizations. Headhunters may also seek out and recruit other highly specialized and/or skilled positions in organizations for which there is strong competition in the job market for the top talent, such as senior data analysts or computer programmers.
Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC is one of Europe's largest business and financial information companies which has interests in business and financial publishing and event organization. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index until it was acquired by private equity groups, Astorg and Epiris, in November 2022.
Mercer is an American consulting firm founded in 1945. It is one of the four operating subsidiaries of global professional services firm Marsh McLennan. Mercer is headquartered in New York City with offices in 43 countries and operations in 130 countries. The company primarily provides human resources and financial services consulting services to its clients.
The UK Corporate Governance code, formerly known as the Combined Code is a part of UK company law with a set of principles of good corporate governance aimed at companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. It is overseen by the Financial Reporting Council and its importance derives from the Financial Conduct Authority's Listing Rules. The Listing Rules themselves are given statutory authority under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and require that public listed companies disclose how they have complied with the code, and explain where they have not applied the code – in what the code refers to as 'comply or explain'. Private companies are also encouraged to conform; however there is no requirement for disclosure of compliance in private company accounts. The Code adopts a principles-based approach in the sense that it provides general guidelines of best practice. This contrasts with a rules-based approach which rigidly defines exact provisions that must be adhered to. In 2017, it was announced that the Financial Reporting Council would amend the Code to require companies to "comply or explain" with a requirement to have elected employee representatives on company boards.
The Deal LLC is a media company that offers The Deal Pipeline, a transaction information service, and formerly published finance and business magazine The Deal. The company generates original and daily articles, commentary and data that cover the world of finance and business through the lens of deal making, focusing on core areas including Mergers & Acquisitions, private equity, venture capital financings, bankruptcies and other topics of interest to the investment banking, private equity, legal, hedge fund and venture capital industries.
Executive compensation is composed of both the financial compensation and other non-financial benefits received by an executive from their employing firm in return for their service. It is typically a mixture of fixed salary, variable performance-based bonuses and benefits and other perquisites all ideally configured to take into account government regulations, tax law, the desires of the organization and the executive.
Hamburg Commercial Bank is a commercial bank in northern Europe with headquarters in Hamburg as well as Kiel, Germany. It is active in corporate and private banking. Considered to be the world’s largest provider of maritime finance, its main focus is on shipping, transportation, real estate and renewable energy. The bank is one of the pioneers in the pan-European project financing of renewable energies and is also involved in the expansion of digital infrastructure. In 2022, the bank won the “World’s Best Bank Transformation” award by Euromoney trade magazine.
UBS Group AG is a multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres as the largest Swiss banking institution and the largest private bank in the world. UBS client services are known for their strict bank–client confidentiality and culture of banking secrecy. Because of the bank's large positions in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific markets, the Financial Stability Board considers it a global systemically important bank.
Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) was an asset management company based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was one of Europe's largest asset management companies, with £146 billion of funds under management as at 31 December 2013. These funds were invested across all major asset classes – including worldwide equities, property, bonds, multi-asset, multi-manager and cash.
The term director is a title given to the senior management staff of businesses and other large organizations.
Jürg Zeltner was a Swiss corporate executive. He last served as Group CEO and member of the Board of Directors at KBL European Private Bankers. He was earlier the President of UBS Wealth Management from November 2014 to December 2017. He stepped down from the Group Executive Board at the end of 2017, and retired from the firm as of 2018. He had served as a member of the UBS Group Executive Board since February 2009. From February 2009 to January 2012 he was co-CEO of Wealth Management and Swiss Bank. In February 2016, Zeltner ranked first among the best global private banking CEOs, according to a 2016 Euromoney private banking survey.
Gender representation on corporate boards of directors refers to the proportion of men and women who occupy board member positions. To measure gender diversity on corporate boards, studies often use the percentage of women holding corporate board seats and the percentage of companies with at least one woman on their board. Globally, men occupy more board seats than women. As of 2018, women held 20.8% of the board seats on Russell 1000 companies. Most percentages for gender representation on corporate boards refer only to public company boards. Private companies are not required to disclose information on their board of directors, so the data is less available.
Gender diversity is equitable or fair representation of people of different genders. It most commonly refers to an equitable ratio of men and women, but also include people of non-binary genders. Gender diversity on corporate boards has been widely discussed, and many ongoing initiatives study and promote gender diversity in fields traditionally dominated by men, including computing, engineering, medicine, and science. It is argued that some proposed explanations are without merit and are in fact dangerous, while others do play a part in a complex interaction of factors. It is suggested that the very nature of science may contribute to the removal of women from the ‘pipeline’.
