Nominees announced for Corporate Governance Awards 2023

Corporate Secretary is delighted to announce the short-listed nominees for its 16th Corporate Governance Awards.

The winners, selected by an independent panel of judges, will be announced at a gala ceremony in New York on Wednesday, November 8. The gala caps two days of special governance-related events hosted by Corporate Secretary: the M&A Forum on November 7 and the Corporate Secretary Forum on November 8.

The awards recognize companies’ and individuals’ outstanding achievements in governance, risk and compliance. Submissions were made by and on behalf of a large number of companies and individuals for their impressive work in areas such as assessing boards, hosting AGMs, compliance and ethics programs, ESG reporting, entity management, proxy statements, shareholder engagement and corporate transactions.

The nominees represent some of the finest work being done by members of the profession and are a credit to their companies and stakeholders.

This year’s nominees for Corporate Secretary’s Corporate Governance Awards are:

Best AGM
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Robinhood Markets

Best board assessment program
JLL
Prudential Financial
Splunk
The Williams Companies

Best compliance and ethics program
Avangrid
Middlesex Water Company
PepsiCo
Visa

Best ESG reporting (small cap)
Fannie Mae
Kimball Electronics
Lumen Technologies

Best ESG reporting (mid-cap)
AMN Healthcare
HASI
Healthpeak Properties
JLL
Korn Ferry
The Huntington National Bank

Best ESG reporting (large cap)
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
HP
Nasdaq
PepsiCo
Uber Technologies
Verizon

Best global entity management
American International Group
HP
JLL
Prudential Financial
Salesforce

Best governance around a corporate transaction
American International Group
HP

Best proxy statement (small cap)
Coeur Mining
Empire State Realty Trust
Kelly Services
Lumen Technologies
Quantum Corporation

Best proxy statement (mid-cap)
Healthpeak Properties
Korn Ferry
Leidos
The Huntington National Bank
Ventas

Best proxy statement (large cap)
Chevron Corporation
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
McDonald’s Corporation
Nasdaq
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
The Allstate Corporation

Best shareholder engagement (small to mid-cap)
Burlington Stores
Empire State Realty Trust
Lumen Technologies
Splunk

Best shareholder engagement (large cap)
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
HP
PepsiCo
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
The Allstate Corporation

Best use of technology
American International Group
JLL
Prudential Financial
Robinhood Markets
Salesforce

Governance professional of the year (small to mid-cap)
Coeur Mining – Robyn Koyner*
JLL – Seth Gastwirth
US Foods – Stephanie Miller
*Robyn Koyner left Coeur Mining in September 2023

Governance professional of the year (large cap)
Activision Blizzard – Jen Brewer
Hewlett Packard Enterprise – Ki Hoon Kim
Prudential Financial – Maggie Palen

Governance team of the year (small to mid-cap)
Blackbaud
JLL
Robinhood Markets
Sallie Mae

Governance team of the year (large cap)
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
HP
Nasdaq
PepsiCo
Prudential Financial

Outstanding work by an independent director
Belden – Diane Brink
CSX Corporation – Linda Riefler

Rising star
Cognizant – Deepa Rao
Robinhood Markets – Erika Murdock Balbuena
Salesforce – Katherine Huynh

AWARDS JUDGES
The distinguished judges for this year’s awards are:

– Anna Catalano, board member, Ecovyst, Frontdoor, Hexion and HF Sinclair

– Jacqueline Condron, vice president for governance and proxy voting manager, Mellon

– Joan Conley, board member, EJF Acquisition Corp and Tigo Energy

– Matthew Geekie, senior vice president, secretary and general counsel, Graybar

– Eileen Kamerick, non-executive director, Associated Banc-Corp, ACV Auctions, Hochschild Mining and Legg Mason Closed End Funds.

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