"Closer Look" Series Examines Hot Topics in Corporate Governance

As investors and regulators take a heightened interest in the role of boards, researchers at Stanford GSB are examining today’s most hotly debated topics in corporate governance. In Stanford’s “Closer Look” case study series, launched by the school’s Corporate Governance Research Program, faculty member David Larcker and researcher Brian Tayan take on everything from the sudden resignation of David Sokol from Berkshire Hathaway to the obligation of boards to disclose CEO health concerns to the (questionable) real value of proxy access.

“We launched the Closer Look series to give directors and board observers a deeper dive into some of the most important issues that boards are dealing with today,” says Larcker, who is James Irvin Miller Professor of Accounting and director of the Corporate Governance Research Program. “Rather than rehash the standard ‘best practice’ governance advice for boards, we look at these issues in real time, based on the real trade-offs that companies have to make in complicated settings.”

With new releases once a month, the Closer Look series has explored the following topics, among others:

• Tesla Motors: The Evolution of Governance from Inception to IPO
• The Resignation of David Sokol: Mountain or Molehill for Berkshire Hathaway?
• Do ISS Voting Recommendations Create Shareholder Value?
• CEO Health Disclosure at Apple: A Public or Private Matter?
• Sensitivity of CEO Wealth to Stock Price: A New Tool for Assessing Pay for Performance
• Proxy Access: A Sheep, or Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?
• Lehman Brothers: Peeking Under the Board Façade

“The Closer Looks present a snapshot of our extensive research into timely governance issues, and show how theory plays out in practice,” says Tayan, researcher with the Corporate Governance Research Program. He and Larcker are authors of the new book, Corporate Governance Matters.