For further information, please visit also our expertise and global perspective in the delivery of Corporate Governance Advisory Services and Proxy Solicitation and Shareholder Meeting Services.

Board composition, structure and effectiveness are at the top the list of issues that institutional investors and shareholders consider in evaluating portfolio companies. As institutions probe more deeply into corporate culture and purpose, the board of directors is increasingly on the front lines together with management in explaining their standards and how their policies are integral to the company’s business strategy.

As a result of these trends, boards increasingly demand detailed information, data and analytics about the shareholders who elect them and about the expectations of investors that must be considered in making and explaining the board’s policies. Accordingly, many of Morrow Sodali’s services now require our direct involvement with board members as well as executive management.

Morrow Sodali’s strategic services help companies evaluate how the board’s attributes and policies are perceived by shareholders and proxy advisory firms. To bring greater transparency to board-related issues, Morrow Sodali provides a host of data and insights relating to shareholder voting at the annual meeting, responses from outreach and engagement campaigns, global perspectives from the different countries in which the firm operates, survey results and specific feedback that result from our continuous networking with key institutional investor contacts.

Much of this expertise is now assembled in Morrow Sodali’s proprietary databases to provide a unique resource to corporate boards in a variety of ways, including the development of a board skills matrix, procedures for board evaluation (with or without the assistance of external experts), development of policies relating to the environment and social issues as well as governance, the definition and ranking of stakeholders whose interests the board should consider, the education and training of board members, and hands-on assistance with the board’s conduct of engagement programs and shareholder communication.

Morrow Sodali’s expertise on all matters relating to shareholders, combined with its mix of advisory and transactional services, provides boards with a uniquely comprehensive set of strategic services that are grounded in the day-to-day activities that link public companies with the owners to whom they are responsible.