Directors' College focuses on corporate governance

With corporate governance issues front and center in the national spotlight, the Lerner College of Business and Economics offered its inaugural Directors' College on campus last fall.

Designed for members of the boards of directors of the 500 largest publicly listed companies, the Directors' College stresses such important core responsibilities as oversight of strategy, risk management and performance metrics.

The theme of the college, which is sponsored by the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, was "Governance in the Spotlight: Critical Steps for Today's Directors."

The college's three-day program opened with a speech by Edgar S. Woolard Jr., former chairman and CEO of the DuPont Co., titled "Building Long-Term Shareholder Value."

The second day's sessions included an address by Harvey J. Goldschmid of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on restoring market confidence.

B. Kenneth West, senior consultant for corporate governance at TIAA-CREF, moderated a panel discussion on "Current Issues in Governance," with panelists including Alfred C. DeCrane Jr., former chairman and chief executive officer of Texaco. That panel was followed by roundtable discussions led by Grady E. Means, managing partner of IBM Business Consulting Services; Robert G. Eccles, founder and president of Advisory Capital Partners; Charles M. Elson, Edgar S. Woolard Jr. Chair of Corporate Governance at UD; and Juan A. Pujadas, partner in charge of the global financial risk management practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In other addresses, Raymond S. Troubh, former governor of the American Stock Exchange and former general partner of Lazard Freres & Co., spoke on "Governance Under Fire," and William B. Chandler III, chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery and a University alumnus, discussed "The Law's Evolving Consideration of Board Roles."