New categories announced for Corporate Governance Awards 2023

Corporate Secretary has announced three new categories for its 2023 Corporate Governance Awards, with nominations due by July 21.

The new awards will recognize the work of governance professionals in board assessments and director training and education. A special category will honor outstanding work by an independent director.

The 16th Corporate Governance Awards will be presented at a gala ceremony in New York on November 8. 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 new categories are:

Best board assessment program
It is important that boards are periodically assessed so that changes can be made if necessary. These assessments are in many cases becoming more detailed and sophisticated.

The judges will be looking for assessment programs that are thorough, innovative and tailored to a specific board where possible. Among other things, they will be looking at whether feedback generated by an assessment has been acted on to help improve the functioning and/or composition of the board.


Best director training and education program
Boards need to be properly kept up to date with relevant information and fully trained to carry out their duties effectively. As such, a key role of governance teams is making sure their board is informed on necessary issues and best practices, often with the aid of outside specialists.

The judges will be looking for evidence of a program that meets these requirements for a specific board by offering extensive, relevant, timely and tailored training and education. They will also be looking for innovation in how directors are given the information and skills they need.


Outstanding work by an independent director
The focus of the Corporate Governance Awards is the work general counsel, corporate secretaries and other governance professionals do in service of their board and company. In this special category, judges will be looking for governance-related achievements by a named individual, independent director.

That might be in leading an initiative to enhance bylaws or the proxy statement, to engage with shareholders – perhaps around a proxy contest – or to push the company to enhance its ESG-related efforts and disclosures. Judges will be looking for an individual board member who has gone above and beyond his/her normal duties to support good governance.
 

OTHER CATEGORIES
The other 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.

A special report honoring the winners of last year’s awards can be found by clicking here.