Corporate Governance Awards judges announced, with submissions due July 29

Corporate Secretary has announced the panel of judges who will decide the winners of this year’s Corporate Governance Awards, for which submissions are due by July 29.

Prabha Sipi Bhandari is a new member of the panel this year. She recently joined American International Group (AIG) as senior vice president, deputy general counsel and corporate secretary. Bhandari previously was senior vice president and principal deputy general counsel at Freddie Mac. Before that, she spent more than a decade at Deutsche Bank in senior positions managing legal groups covering M&A and conflicts resolution, before being promoted to managing director and general counsel of Deutsche Bank Securities.

Bhandari previously was vice president and associate general counsel at Viacom, and before that was an M&A associate at law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. She began her legal career as a judicial clerk for the Hon John Duhé of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Stephen Giove also joins the panel this year. Giove is co-founder and chief content officer of Ebullience. Before May 2020 he was a partner in the capital markets group and co-founder of Shearman & Sterling’s corporate governance advisory group. He joined the firm in 1987, became a partner in 1993, was the firm’s hiring partner from 1997 to 1999, was co-head of its US capital markets group from 2003 to 2007 and was a member of the firm’s global business development committee from 2008 to 2010.

Bhandari and Giove join fellow industry experts who have been members of the panel in past years:

• Joan Conley, board member with EJF Acquisition Corp and Tigo Energy and senior adviser on corporate governance and ESG programs at Nasdaq
• Lucy Fato, executive vice president, general counsel and global head of communications and government affairs at AIG (scoring selected categories)
• Matthew Geekie, senior vice president, secretary and general counsel at Graybar
• Eileen Kamerick, non-executive director at Associated Banc-corp, ACV Auctions, Hochschild Mining and Legg Mason Closed End Funds.

CATEGORIES AND SUBMISSIONS
The 15th Corporate Governance Awards will be presented at an in-person gala ceremony in New York on November 9. The awards recognize companies’ and individuals’ outstanding achievements in governance, risk and compliance (GRC).

Entries can be submitted – free of charge – by corporate secretaries, general counsel, compliance officers and other governance officials at companies listed/domiciled in the US, or by vendors or service providers on behalf of their clients.

The categories open for nomination this year are:
Best AGM
Best compliance and ethics program
Best ESG reporting
Best global entity management
Best governance around a corporate transaction
Best proxy statement (small cap, mid-cap and large cap)
Best shareholder engagement
Best use of technology
Governance professional of the year (small to mid-cap and large cap)
Governance team of the year (small to mid-cap and large cap)
Rising star

Details of the awards can be found by clicking here. Entries can be submitted using an online form located here, which also includes information about the entry guidelines and category criteria.

Entries will be judged by a panel of experts comprising GRC professionals and the Corporate Secretary editorial team. It is free to submit an entry and professionals can nominate in multiple categories. The full short lists will be released in mid-October, with those on the short lists being informed in the weeks before.

Details of last year’s awards and the winners can be found in a special report by clicking here.