Global Shareholder Stewardship: Complexity Revealed

Global Shareholder Stewardship: Complexity Revealed

Within less than twenty years the idea of shareholder stewardship has become a global phenomenon. In 2010, the United Kingdom hastily released the world’s first stewardship code to cure what was perceived to be the UK’s primary corporate governance malady: rationally passive institutional investors in a country characterized by a dispersed ownership structure.

Today, UK-style stewardship codes exist in six out of the world’s ten largest economies (United States (1st), Japan (3rd), India (5th), United Kingdom (6th), Brazil (9th), and Canada (10th)), Australia and thirteen more jurisdictions around the world. Our talk will explain why the conventional understanding of shareholder stewardship – which is based primarily on a UK-centric perspective – masks the complexity of the global shareholder stewardship movement. It will draw upon a unique collection of recent in-depth case studies on stewardship in 22 jurisdictions by leading corporate law experts from our forthcoming edited book (“Global Shareholder Stewardship”) and hand-collected data analysing the content of every stewardship code that has ever been issued.

Based on this unique source of information, we aim to provide a nuanced and accurate understanding of perhaps the most important global corporate governance movement of our time – which is of paramount importance as shareholder stewardship has been touted as a mechanism to prevent the next financial crisis and an antidote for climate change.

Speakers

Dr Dionysia Katelouzou, Reader in Corporate Law, The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London

Dionysia Katelouzou is Reader at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London and a Research Associate at the Centre of Business Research at the University of Cambridge. Dionysia writes and teaches comparative and transnational corporate law and governance and the regulation of financial institutions. She has earned a reputation for her interdisciplinary legal research, has been involved in policy-related projects and is the recipient of multiple teaching awards and research grants.

Associate Professor Dan W. Puchniak, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

Dan W. Puchniak is an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law and a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute. Dan is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of comparative corporate law and governance in Asia. He has received numerous domestic and international awards for his academic research and teaching.

Chairs

Professor Jennifer Hill, Bob Baxt AO Chair, Monash Law & Director of CLARS

Professor Jennifer Hill is the inaugural Bob Baxt AO Professor of Corporate and Commercial Law at Monash University Faculty of Law and is the Director of the Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies (CLARS). Jennifer is an internationally recognised legal scholar in the field of comparative corporate law and governance.

Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Sydney (BA LLB (Hons) and the University of Oxford (BCL). She is a research member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and has held visiting teaching and research positions at leading international institutions, including the University of Cambridge; Cornell University; Duke University; NYU Law School; University of Virginia, University of Texas, and Vanderbilt University Law School.

Dr Tim Bowley, Corporate Lawyer and Researcher, Monash Law

Tim Bowley is a corporate law researcher and experienced corporate lawyer. His research interests focus on contemporary regulatory debates in corporate and securities law, with a particular focus on the role of shareholders in corporate governance. Tim received his PhD in law from the University of Sydney; his PhD dissertation argues that recent debates in Australia regarding the regulation of shareholder activism have not been informed by an adequate empirical understanding of the nature of Australian shareholder activism.

Tim’s current research projects involve research into the need for regulatory change to address institutional investor stewardship, and participation in a research project into corporate accountability being undertaken by Monash University and the National University of Singapore. In addition to his research projects, Tim teaches sessionally at Monash University and is a consultant for a national Australian law firm. Prior to commencing his academic career, Tim was a partner in a national Australian law firm and practised in London at one of the leading “Magic Circle’ firms.

Contact us

Name: Janice Hugo

E-Mail: janice.hugo@monash.edu

Phone: 03 9905 3327