2001
Inaugural ICGN Annual Awards
The ICGN Awards in 2002 were presented
to Sir Adrian Cadbury, Ira Millstein and
Professor Hasung Jang. Click here
for the Opening Address by ICGN Co-Chairman André Baladi.
Sir
Adrian Cadbury
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| Sir Adrian chaired the Cadbury Group
from 1965 until 1989, a quarter of a century during which
he developed a participative corporate management structure
and edited one of the first corporate charters of Business
Principles. He was also a Director of the Bank of England
from 1970 to 1994, and founded Pro Ned, a Bank of England-backed
organization aimed at professionalizing non-executive
directors. |
Sir Adrian is still
very active, among others as member of the Panel of
Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement
of Investment Disputes, and as Chancellor of Aston University.
He also recently started a small community loan fund
for entrepreneurs who have no access to conventional
financial sources. His renowned 1990 book, "The
Company Chairman", was reedited in 1995. His most
celebrated achievement, for which he will be long-remembered,
is the seminal 1992 "Cadbury Code" on corporate
governance, which became the model for reform around
the world.
These are but a few of his past involvements,
to which should be added that Sir Adrian also happened
to chair the U.K. Committee on the Financial Aspects
of Corporate Governance, and to contribute to the influential
OECD Corporate Governance Business Advisory Group, chaired
by Ira Millstein. |
Ira Millstein
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| The Senior Partner of the prestigious
law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges has been a leading
voice in promoting corporate governance reforms for the
past 20 years, first in the U.S. and then on the international
stage. He has represented corporate boards, executives
and institutional investors, which is rare in the legal
field. |
| He is
singularly gifted, to be able to represent the different
sides of a controversy or a dispute, and adapt his approach
to multi-cultural audiences.
A significant portion of his corporate
governance activities has been undertaken on a pro bono
basis. After contributing, as Counsel to the U.S. Business
Roundtable, to the publication of "The Role and
Composition of the Board of Directors for the Large
Publicly-Owned Corporation", he co-authored "The
Limits of Corporate Power" and "Industrial
Policy and the Law". He also edited "The Impact
of the Modern Corporation", and authored several
hundred articles and reports. His academic connections
include, among others, Columbia University Law School,
Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government,
New York University Law School, and Yale University
School of Organization and Management.
After advising the General Motors
Board on its restructuring in 1992, Ira Millstein contributed
to drafting its seminal "Board Guidelines on Significant
Corporate Governance Issues", which incited many
companies to develop codes of best practice. He also
chaired the U.S. National Association of Corporate Directors
(NACD) Blue Ribbon Commission on Director Professionalism,
as well as the OECD Business Sector Advisory Group which
drafted the report that laid the foundation for the
"OECD Principles of Corporate Governance".
He was also a key member of the OECD Task Force which
drafted these Principles. Two U.S. Presidents, as well
as New York State and City Governors, appointed him
on numerous occasions as either Chairman or member of
important Commissions, such as the Pension Investment
Task Force for instance.
Thanks to Ira Millstein, corporate
directors are more aware today of their responsibilities,
shareholders are more aware of their rights, and executives
are more likely to do something about poor corporate
performance. |
Professor
Hasung Jang
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| We are told that Korea University Finance
Professor Hasung Jang nurtures orchids, which he claims
to be "very restrained, controlled and patient, but
when they bloom, the fragrance of only one blossom can
permeate an entire house". The U.S. Wharton School
Finance PhD graduate, winner of the 1995 Graham &
Dodd Award, couldn't have found a better metaphor to describe
his relentless corporate governance crusade in South Korea. |
As founder of the shareholder
advocacy unit of the Peoples Solidarity for Participatory
Democracy (PSPD) group, Professor Jang's team gathers
hard-to-find information on "chaebols", and
then methodically challenges the most flagrant governance
inadequacies through shareholder AGMs, courts, and other
forums. He has faced epic confrontations with several
"chaebol" officials over the past few years,
as a result of which he developed a devoted following
among institutional investors around the world. Moreover,
three large Korean public pension funds recently backed
one of his resolutions at a major AGM. Furthermore,
Hasung Jang has been appointed as advisor to the Korean
Stock Exchange, and to the Fair Trade Commission (the
Korean antitrust agency). Incidentally, during the first
four months of this year, one of the best performing
stock market indexes was Korea's KOSPI, with + 17 %
, versus - 40 % for the worst performer, the Swiss New
Market Technology index (both in local currency terms).
Could that over-performance be an outcome of the "Jang
Effect" ? Actually, he is reported to have stated
that "with more transparency and greater investor
confidence, we can easily create Won 10 to 20 trillion
(US$ 8 to 16 billion) of additional value in Korea".
In any event, Hasung Jang is willing
to be patient. He is after all a man who will wait two
years for a single orchid to bloom.
"Professor Jang's efforts are
being closely watched in Asia. If he is perceived to
succeed, other Asian countries may find they have to
contend with their own Jangs", wrote "Institutional
Investor" in its April 2001 issue.
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