EMERGING TRENDS IN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE - Villa Christina, Atlanta GA

This panel session will provide an informational forum to hear and discuss the latest trends in corporate governance. In addition to dinner, a drink ticket and Hors D’oeuvres are included. We look forward to having you attend. Tables are grouped in seats of 8 if you would like to purchase an entire table for this event. Groups of less than 8 people can also be seated together.

If you have any questions before completing your reservation, please contact Round Table for Success Inc. via phone, 770-928-3853 or email, CMerino@RoundTableofSuccess.com.

Who will benefit by coming to this event?

• Attorneys and CPAs that handle mergers and acquisitions
• Board Members or prospective board members on publically traded companies
• C-Level Executives whose company is either currently going through a merger and acquisition or may in the near future. It crosses all industries (health, IT, manufacturing, retail, and more)
• Investment bankers and advisors who represent the buyer or the seller on merger and acquisitions transactions
• Private equity companies that represent a number of industries
• Investment wealth managers and financial planners

Panelists:

Myron Steele, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware will give us his reflections on ‘Governance Past & Present’ and his view of ‘The Future of Governance’.

He will talk about the changes he has seen in the number of cases The Delaware courts have seen filed since the 1990’s, to the present day. What they anticipate in the future and how the Delaware Supreme Court has met this evolution and maintain their integrity and clarity in their decision making process. Time permitting he may site three recent cases to highlight two emerging trends in the courts.

Chad Spitler, Managing Director, Global Chief Operating Officer, BlackRock Corporate Governance & Responsible Investment will be discussing -

The evolution of corporate governance from behind the scenes to proactive engagement, its impacts on companies and shareholders, and the merging of responsible investment principles into corporate governance as sustainability becomes the purview of the board.

BlackRock votes at approximately 15,000 shareholder meetings a year, including over 130,000 proposals. According to a University of Michigan study, they are the single largest shareholder in approximately 20% of US listed companies, and own 5% or more of roughly 40% of all publicly traded companies in the U.S.

Mark Preisinger, Director of Corporate Governance for the Coca-Cola Company, will be discussing -

His current responsibilities in coordinating engagement between his company and its institutional and individual shareowners, with a primary focus on corporate governance, environmental and social issues. In addition, he’ll share his observations and experience as Vice President of Public Policy and Stakeholder Engagement overseeing the development and execution of strategies to manage public policy issues for his company.

Moderator:

Holly Gregory, Sidley Austin Partner in NYC, is co-Global coordinator of the firm’s Corporate Governance Practice and Executive Compensation group. Holly has been recognized among the “100 Most Influential Players in Corporate Governance” (NACD/Directorship 100), Directorship Magazine 2013. Holly will lead the discussion!

Myron T. Steele

Seventh Chief Justice, Delaware Supreme Court

Lecturer
LL.M., University of Virginia School of Law, 2005
J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1970
B.A., University of Virginia, 1967

Myron T. Steele, who teaches the Law School short course Advising “The Board of Directors in a Mergers and Acquisitions World”, is a partner at the Delaware law firm Potter Anderson & Corroon and the recently retired chief justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware. Previously, he served as a vice chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery. He has presided over major corporate litigation, LLC and limited partner governance disputes and writes frequently on issues of corporate document interpretation and corporate governance. Steele has published more than 300 opinions resolving disputes among members of limited liability companies, and limited partnerships, and between shareholders and management of both publicly traded and close corporations.

Steele has taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School as well as at the University of Virginia School Of Law.

The Directorship Magazine ranked Steele as one of the 100 most influential people in corporate governance in the United States. Ethisphere Magazine ranked Steele second in its list of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics for 2007. Lawdragon Magazine has consistently placed Steele among its annual Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America and Top Judges in America.

In July 2012, the Conference of Chief Justices of the United States elected Steele president for 2012-2013 and chairman of the board of directors of the National Center for State Courts.

In October 2012, the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform honored Steele with the Judicial Leadership Achievement Award.

Chad Spitler

Managing Director, Chief Global Operating Officer, Corporate Governance & Responsible Investment

BlackRock

Chad Spitler, Managing Director, is the Global Chief Operating Officer for BlackRock’s Corporate Governance & Responsible Investment team. He is responsible for overseeing the team’s evaluation of corporate governance practices at the companies in which they invest, including the management of environmental and social considerations, and the corresponding proxy voting, engagement and investment process integration that results from that evaluation. Mr. Spitler is the Proxy Facilitator for the Securities Evaluation Group of the International Standards Organization (ISO), and is a member of the International Corporate Governance Network’s (ICGN) Shareholders Responsibility Committee, and the Broadridge Global and Domestic Steering Committees.

Mr. Spitler’s service with the firm dates back to 2000, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. At BGI, Mr. Spitler last managed theAmericasproxy voting team, responsible for analyzing and voting proxies, and engaging with the corporations of which BGI was a shareholder. Throughout his tenure he managed the corporate actions, trade operations, cash analysis and central control departments. Prior to BGI, Mr. Spitler was a Senior Market Research Analyst with the Franklin Templeton Group.

Mr. Spitler earned an MA degree from the University of Colorado, and a BS degree in Natural Resource Management from the University of Michigan. He is a Series 7, 6 and 63 FINRA Registered Securities Representative.

Mark Preisinger

Director of Corporate Governance, Vice-President of Public Policy and Stakeholder Engagement

The Coca-Cola Company

Mark Preisinger is Director of Corporate Governance for The Coca-Cola Company. In this capacity, his responsibilities include coordinating engagement between the Company and its institutional and individual shareowners, with a primary focus on corporate governance, environmental and social issues.

Mr. Preisinger serves on the Advisory Board for the Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at the Columbia Law School; on the Board of Directors of the IRRC Institute; on the Conference Board Governance Center Advisory Board; and is the Emeritus member of the Advisory Board of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. He is a past member of the Board of Governors of the International Corporate Governance Network; has been Co-Chairman of the Council of Institutional Investors and he has been listed on the NACD 100 most influential people in the boardroom community. Mr. Preisinger is a frequent speaker on programs related to corporate governance.

Mr. Preisinger joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1984 and has managed a variety of domestic and international assignments for the business. Since 2007, he has served as Vice President of Public Policy and Stakeholder Engagement overseeing the development and execution of stategies to manage public policy issues for the Company. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia and resides with his family in Atlanta.

Holly Gregory

Partner, Sidley Austin LLP

HOLLY J. GREGORY is a partner in Sidley’s New York office, and is co-global coordinator of the firm’s Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation group. Holly counsels clients on the full range of governance issues, including fiduciary duties, risk oversight, conflicts of interest, board and committee structure, board leadership structures, special committee investigations, board audits and self-evaluation processes, shareholder initiatives, proxy contests, relationships with shareholders and proxy advisory firms, compliance with legislative, regulatory and listing rule requirements, and governance “best practice.”

Ms. Gregory played a key role in drafting the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance and has advised the Internal Market Directorate of the European Commission on corporate governance regulation, and the joint OECD/World Bank Global Corporate Governance Forum on governance policy for developing and emerging markets. She also drafted the NACD Key Agreed Principles of Corporate Governance.

In addition to her legal practice and policy efforts, she has lectured extensively on governance topics, including at events in Europe and Asia sponsored by the U.S. State Department, International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), The Conference Board, National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), Association of Corporate Counsel, Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals, and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). The author of numerous articles on governance topics, she writes the monthly governance column for Practical Law: The Journal.

Ms. Gregory is founding co-chair of the ABA Business Law Section’s Subcommittee on International Corporate Governance Developments and serves by invitation on the ABA Corporate Laws Committee and as co-chair of the Delaware Business Law Forum of the Business Law Section. She co-chaired the ABA task force that issued the 6th edition of the ABA Corporate Directors Guidebook (April 2011) and chaired the ABA task force that delivered the Report on the Delineation of Governance Roles & Responsibilities to Congress and the SEC in August, 2009. She also currently serves as Vice-Chair of the ABA’s Corporate Governance Committee. Ms. Gregory is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, teaching a course on Corporate Governance in the Fall 2013 term. She has served on a number of the NACD’s Blue Ribbon Commissions. She has served as pro bono counsel to the New York City Opera, the New York Junior League, and other not for profit institutions. Ms. Gregory served as a law clerk to the Honorable Roger J. Miner, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ms. Gregory served on the Board of Trustees of New York Law School from 2009 through 2011.

Ms. Gregory is widely recognized for her governance work, including most recently as: the best in Corporate Governance at Euromoney Legal Media Group’s inaugural Americas Women in Business Law Awards 2012; the leading practitioner in corporate governance law in the Guide to the World’s Leading Women in Business Law (July 2010); among the “100 Most Influential Players in Corporate Governance” (NACD/Directorship 100), Directorship Magazine, 2013 and prior years; and a “Leading Practitioner in Corporate Governance” in the International Who’s Who of Corporate Governance Lawyers, 2013 and prior years.