On Tuesday, February 5th Direct Engagement Inc. is sponsoring a peer-to-peer roundtable discussion on corporate governance in Canada, “Capital markets in Canada compete globally for issuers and investors. Scandals in the US demonstrated their fragility. Statistics show Canadian regulators devote a smaller percentage of their total budget to enforcement than the US. Is the present corporate governance system working? Why are some organizations better than others in corporate governance?” Although this is a paid-attendance event, anyone (including readers of PR Conversations) can register to listen to the free, live webcast of nine “peers” debating this topic.
dictionary.com pulls up the following definition of corporate governance, “The relationship between all the stakeholders in a company. This includes the shareholders, directors, and management of a company, as defined by the corporate charter, bylaws, formal policy, and rule of law.” The Investopedia commentary adds, “Ethical companies are said to have excellent corporate governance.” A good topic for PR practitioners to explore, n’est-ce pas?
It really does look like a great panel of speakers, drawn from a variety of sectors and organizations.
The Peers of the “How effective is corporate governance in Canada?” Roundtable
James Baillie, Counsel, Torys LLP
Alex Brownings, Vice President of Finance and CFO, Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO)
Garfield Emerson, Principal, Emerson Advisory
Rock Lefebvre, Vice President, Research and Standards, Certified General Accountants Association of Canada
Janet McFarland, Columnist and Reporter, The Globe and Mail
Carole McNamara, Vice-President and Corporate Secretary, RBC Financial Group
Steve Salterio, Professor of Business (Auditing, Governance and Control), Queens University
Beverly Lynn Topping, President and CEO, Institute of Corporate Directors
Katie Walmsley, President, Investment Counsel Association of Canada
Roundtable Moderator: Stefan Lialias, CEO, Direct Engagement Inc.
Disclosure: you’ll notice that one participant is Rock Lefebvre, FCGA. He’s my connection to this event and the reason why I’m promoting it here. When approached for a participant, Rock got my endorsement because he’s right on top of current standards, demographics and trends. (Canadians may have seen, heard or read him in various media outlets this past fall, after the release of the most recent report, Where Does the Money Go: The Increasing Reliance on Household Debt in Canada . Rock and that report sure got a lot of pickup.)
And PR Conversations actually played a small role in him being confirmed for this gig, because when I was asked for some background information on Rock Lefebvre, I pointed my Direct Engagement Inc. contact to an earlier post I did, Research report on sustainability reporting in Canada.
(When you go to the Direct Engagement Inc.’s information page, you’ll notice the sustainability reporting post is what Direct Engagement Inc. chose to quote from/link to in Rock’s individual bio. I only figured that out after I saw a stream of readers coming from the Direct Engagement website. Check out all of the speaker bios; they are a very interesting group.)
If you decide to take advantage of this free webcast–and I hope that several of you do–note that basically you must register by Monday (i.e., before 12:01 a.m. on February 5th). If you are a member of the Canadian Public Relations Society, likely you received a direct invitation to register for the webcast (or a VIP in-person price discount) on Thursday. And if you decide to register and attend in person, be sure to find me to say hello.