Directors Say Their Risk Has Increased Since Last Year, According to PricewaterhouseCoopers & Corporate Board Member Survey | Reuters

Directors Say Their Risk Has Increased Since Last Year, According to PricewaterhouseCoopers & Corporate Board Member Survey Reuters


Directors Say Their Risk Has Increased Since Last Year, According to PricewaterhouseCoopers & Corporate Board Member Survey
Thu Oct 29, 2009 11:21am EDT >


69% Say Risk as Director has Increased - Nearly a Twofold Jump from 38% in2008 >


NEW YORK, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the 8th Annual "What DirectorsThink" survey released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Corporate BoardMember magazine, directors are very focused on risk: 69 percent believe theirrisk as a director has increased during the prior 12 months -- a substantialjump from the 38 percent who answered so in 2008. Seventy-five percent ofdirectors surveyed also state that responsibility for risk management restswith the full board. >

Overall, respondents are cautiously optimistic about their ability to monitortheir companies' multitude of risks: 88 percent of directors consider theirboard to be capable, and they rate risk first among responsibilities to whichdirectors should pay the greatest attention, after their focus onprofitability and shareholder value. However, while most directors indicatethey have sufficient board meeting time to comply with their duties asdirectors, 66 percent would prefer to increase the amount of time spentdiscussing risk management. >

In addition to risk management, the current business environment is amongboards' highest of priorities. When asked how their board meeting time shouldbe spent, more than half (60 percent) of the respondents say they should spendmore board meeting time discussing the effects of changes in the economy. >

Yet, while directors want to spend more time on the uncertainties of theeconomy during their meetings, when asked, What keeps you up at night?, fewerthan 25 percent say they worry about the ability of the CEO to manage throughthe current challenges. Instead, 59 percent cite unknown risks in response tothe question of what keeps them up at night. >

Catherine Bromilow, a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers' Corporate GovernanceGroup, said, "Directors' focus on risk management is particularly timely,given our expectation that companies will have to provide new disclosuresabout their boards' risk oversight in upcoming proxy statements." >

Corporate Board Member president and CEO, TK Kerstetter, said, "Every yearwhen the survey results are announced, we stress the importance of the keyfoundational duties of a board. One is selecting and retaining the rightCEO/management team and second is the responsibility of overseeing riskmanagement, particularly catastrophic risk. >

Kerstetter added, "Even a board with a great corporate governance structurewill be challenged this year by monitoring the risk levels of itsorganization, especially if they have global operations." >
This marks the eighth year for the annual "What Directors Think" survey, whichmeasures the opinions of more than 1,000 directors serving on the boards ofthe top 2,000 publicly traded companies (by revenue) listed with the NYSEEuronext, the NYSE Amex, and the NASDAQ OMX Group stock exchanges. The 2009survey findings are highlighted in Fourth Quarter 2009 Corporate Board Memberissue and can be found on the Corporate Board Member website athttp://www.boardmember.com/. Additional findings and analysis will be published in asupplement mailing in the coming months. >

About PricewaterhouseCoopersPricewaterhouseCoopers (http://www.pwc.com/) provides industry-focused assurance, taxand advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clientsand their stakeholders. More than 163,000 people in 151 countries across ournetwork share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop freshperspectives and practical advice. >
"PricewaterhouseCoopers" refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP or, as thecontext requires, the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network or other memberfirms of the network, each of which is a separate and independent legalentity. >

About Corporate Board MemberCorporate Board Member is the leading information resource for senior officersand directors of publicly traded corporations and large private companies. Thequarterly publication provides readers with decision-making tools to deal withthe corporate governance challenges confronting their boards. Corporate BoardMember further extends its governance leadership through an online resourcecenter, conferences, director training programs, roundtables, and timelyresearch. The magazine maintains the most comprehensive, up-to-date databaseof directors and officers serving on boards of publicly traded companieslisted with the NYSE Euronext, The NASDAQ OMX Group and NYSE Amex stockexchanges. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee with an editorial office inNew York, Corporate Board Member is published by Board Member Inc. and is thesister publication of Bank Director magazine, the leading information resourcefor officers and directors of financial institutions. For more information,visit http://www.boardmember.com/. >

SOURCE PricewaterhouseCoopers >

Steven Silber, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, +1-646-471-4059,steven.g.silber@us.pwc.com; or Kimberly James, Corporate Board Member,+1-615-309-3203, kjames@boardmember.com; or Marisha Mistry, Edelman,+1-212-704-4592, marisha.mistry@edelman.com >

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved >

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http://dreamlearndobecome.blogspot.com This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.