The following is a collection of thought leadership provided by WCD’s global sponsors for October 2024. WCD’s sponsors offer expert thought leadership and insights into best practices for board governance and committees. This edition features critical updates for board directors on climate legislation, emerging trends in executive compensation, innovative strategies in private credit and investment vehicles, and valuable insights into CEO leadership and succession planning.

GLOBAL LEAD SPONSOR

Effective dates near for CA climate laws
In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law SB-219, which maintains the 2026 effective date for reporting greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks, among other amendments. Download
KPMG Financial Reporting View

Future of risk report
KPMG shares takeaways from their survey of 400 senior executives on how enterprises can mitigate external and internal risks in the face of reputational, environmental, regulatory, and societal forces. Download
KPMG LLP

2024 KPMG Global CEO Outlook
In a KPMG International survey of more than 1,300 CEOs, 68% said they would take a stance on a politically or socially contentious issue, even if the board raised concerns. Download
KPMG International

Private company survey findings
KPMG surveyed over 600 leaders of US-based companies—including those that intend to remain private, those with plans to go public in the next few years, and a subset that have recently gone public—for their perspectives on growth, disruption, AI, and reporting in an ever-changing environment. Download
KPMG LLP

 

GLOBAL EXECUTIVE SPONSOR

The Compensation Committee’s Guide to Evaluating, Structuring, and Communicating Executive Incentives and Climate Issues
How do you structure a framework to include climate-related incentives in an executive compensation plan? Pearl Meyer shares key insights here.

2024’s Top Five Proactive Conversation Starters for Fall Compensation Committee Meetings
Read the article, which offers practical advice for helping your board get ahead of issues related to internal succession, PSUs, non-financial metrics, executive departures, and effective CEO evaluations.

Looking Ahead to Executive Pay Practices/Design in 2025
Timely data, linked here, on how companies of all sizes and ownership types are approaching executive compensation and incentive plan design.

Getting a Jump on Salary Budgets at Life Sciences Companies
Initial US salary budget estimates for 2025 based on consistent input from clients and colleagues. Read the data provided by Pearl Meyer.

 

GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIC SPONSOR

 

Credit FAQ: How We Rate Common Private Credit Investment Vehicles
The growth of private credit has fueled an expansion of investment vehicles offering a range of investment objectives with different liquidity and risk profiles. While the underlying assets may be similar in some cases across investment vehicles, the issuer’s structural features and the level of flexibility of the fund manager can influence our credit rating analysis. Read on

Credit FAQ: Factors To Consider In The Growing Blended Finance Market
Governments and multilateral lending institutions have long supported the development of low- and lower-middle-income countries and regions through direct investment and lending. As a result, the use of blended finance transactions has grown. Learn more about the common questions S&P Global has received about blended finance and how it’s perspective on the innovative structures that governments and MLIs are seeking.

Emerging Markets Monthly Highlights: Window Opens For Monetary Easing
S&P Global Ratings noted that central banks in emerging markets may have more room to ease rates since it now expects a 25-basis-point Federal Reserve rate cut in September after the July jobs report, according to its latest “Emerging Markets Monthly Highlights: Window Opens For Monetary Easing” report. Download.

Q4 2024 Global Credit Conditions
The S&P regional and global Credit Conditions Committees—and the research publications they produce—provide financial market participants around the world with an essential resource for identifying and understanding prevailing and potential credit risks. Access the research.

• Fund Finance
  We apply our global ratings framework to various alternative investment funds whose investment strategies span private and public equity, venture capital and private debt, as well as hedge funds and other investment companies that share key characteristics of AIFs.
• Private Credit
  Private credit has scaled up in size and scope to be competitive in funding deals served by public markets—and offering another avenue for debt funding to corporate, infrastructure, and financial borrowers.
• Investor Vehicles
  Institutional investors’ appetite for private credit is fueling growth in middle-market collateralized loan obligations, business development companies, asset-based finance, and other investment vehicles.
• Project Finance & Infrastructure
  Private markets are providing new forms of long-term financing for industrial and infrastructure projects—offering solutions for the energy transition and technological revolution, and making a transformational impact on millions of people.

GLOBAL SUPPORTING SPONSOR

 

Equilar Partners with InvestorFlow to Drive Financial Services Deal Flow
Equilar, the leading provider of relationship intelligence solutions, is excited to announce a strategic partnership with InvestorFlow, a leading deal management and investor communications platform for the private equity and financial services industries. Read more about the newest partnership.

Staying Ahead of Shareholder Feedback With Equilar’s AI Disclosure Analyst
The Equilar Research Intelligence Copilot supports companies as they aim to address the growing range of concerns from shareholders and considerations for the Compensation Committee. Read about it in their latest case study, linked here.

WCD PARTNER

2024 U.S. Spencer Stuart Board Index
Now in its 39th year, the U.S. Spencer Stuart Board Index examines the latest data and trends in board composition, board governance practices and director compensation among S&P 500 companies. Read on.

How CEOs Build Confidence in Their Leadership
New CEOs frequently face a conundrum. While the people around them publicly express high hopes for what they’ll be able to achieve, in private those same people are skeptical. Buoyed by outward expressions of support and eager to make their mark, CEOs steam ahead with bold new initiatives before they’ve won the full support and trust of all stakeholders, and this can get them into trouble. Keep reading.

From Founder-Led to Founder-Inspired: Advice for Successor CEOs
When Spencer Stuart works with new CEOs, they are advised to lay a firm foundation in the first 12 months by quickly activating their executive team, defining a few early strategic moves to build momentum, and proactively engaging the board and other stakeholders. They also need to work on their own effectiveness by defining how they want to show up as a leader and connect with the layer of leaders below the top team, who translate strategies into the real work of the organization and have their ear on the “truth on the ground.” Read more insights from Spencer Stuart here.

Is the CFO the best successor to the CEO? Well, it depends…
High-performing CEOs are a unique breed. The burden of leadership rests heavy but it also presents an opportunity to drive performance and create a positive impact. Identifying the right person for the role is therefore of critical importance. Learn more about Spencer Stuart’s key tips on succession planning.

Lead like … Ted Lasso? How media shapes today’s CEOs
As demands on leaders evolve — and time becomes ever more precious — chief executives and board directors are finding lessons (both good and bad) about leading from an increasingly wide variety of sources. As part of Spencer Stuart’s Measure of Leadership program, they asked more than 2,000 CEOs and directors around the world to share a book, movie or TV show that taught them something about leadership. The responses are linked here.

Explore more from WCD’s Sponsors:

• • September 2024 | Click Here
  • August 2024 |  Click Here
  • July 2024 | Click Here
  • June 2024 | Click Here