Program on Negotiation executive committee member and Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School professor Guhan Subramanian was recently cited by Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission during his opening statement at the Proxy Voting Roundtable.
In discussing the equalizing effect of a universal balloting system on corporate governance, Commissioner Gallagher cited professor Subramanian, saying: “In this grand bargain approach to corporate governance, he would, among other things, bring back a variant of staggered boards, adopt proxy access, and tighten disclosures of activist positions in companies. I’m not sure whether this is the right balance, but I like the approach of putting all the issues on the table and seeking to reach a compromise on the right combination of policies—much as I have called for holistic reviews in other areas—rather than an incrementalist approach of considering each policy change in isolation.”
Such an approach, Gallagher remarked, would necessitate further studies and the inclusion of other stakeholders in order to determine the “right solution” for U.S. capital market but offers a starting point for further discussion.
You can read the Commissioner’s opening statement here on the US Securities and Exchange Commission website.
To read more about the future of corporate governance and how it applies to negotiation, you can read Professor Subramanian’s article “Corporate Governance 2.0” on Harvard Business Review’s website.
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