Word: ceo
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...chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson can arguably claim to have played a key role in delivering a record $40.6 billion in profit to shareholders last year. Yet many of them, including dozens of descendants of John D. Rockefeller, whose Standard Oil morphed into Exxon, don't want him to be chairman anymore. At the oil giant's annual meeting in Dallas on Wednesday, nearly 40% of shareholders voted to separate the roles of CEO and chairman atop the oil giant. It was more support than most such proposals get, yet still far shy of a majority...
...votes have only garnered an average 32% support, though some annual meetings remain. "Many of the problems surrounding poor governance stem from management accruing too much power," says Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at The Corporate Library, a governance and compensation research firm. "If you split the roles of CEO and chairman, you get this balance of power in the boardroom. A strong chairman can stand up to the CEO...
...Most U.S. companies have a different perspective, arguing that a chairman-CEO is better positioned to take decisive action and carry out a successful vision. But according to RiskMetrics, 45% of S&P 1,500 companies (the nation's 1,500 largest by revenue) had a separate chairman and CEO in 2007. That number is up markedly since 2003, in the wake of the explosion of corporate accounting scandals, when only 30% of companies had different people in those roles. In many of those cases, however, the separate chairman happens to be a former CEO. Only...
...often concentrating corporate power in one person, the U.S. takes a very different approach from much of the rest of the world. Almost all companies in Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia split the CEO and chairman roles, sometimes because of the law, and sometimes because of other conventions. Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, for example, are allowed to have the same person serving as both CEO and chairman - but they must provide a compelling reason why. As a result, some 95% of British companies split the job. Simon Wong, who studied the topic...
...when companies do voluntarily split the CEO and chairman roles, it is frequently in response to poor performance or shareholder pressure - even if the decision is framed as a broader commitment to good corporate governance. In early May, Wachovia, which like many banks has been severely battered by the credit market meltdown, took its chairmanship away from CEO Ken Thompson and gave it to long-time director Lanty Smith. In a statement, Wachovia said it "recognized the importance of strong independent leadership," but Thompson also pointed out that the move would free him "to focus 100% of my time...