board governance – Benefits Canada.com

BCI updates code of ethics, personal conduct to address DEI-related issues

Gideon Scanlon — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 15:00:15 +0000

The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. is updating its code of ethics and personal conduct to include a section outlining its expectations from employees around diversity, equity and inclusion-related issues. Following a review of the 2018 version of the code earlier this year, the BCI’s board put forward recommendations and a new version was published […]

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Women in Canada’s benefits, pension industries discuss gender equity, reversing pandemic-fueled ‘she-cession’

lbailey — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 12:55:03 +0000

Early in Shannan Corey’s pension career, many of the boards she worked with were dominated by men over the age of 50. Corey, now executive director of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, recalls one particular board meeting she attended when her company’s actuary, also male, wasn’t able to attend. “I was in my 30s and still […]

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Ontario Teachers’ abstains from vote to re-elect female board member

Gideon Scanlon — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 17:00:07 +0000

To push for greater female representation on a corporate board, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan withheld its support for the re-election of a female board director during a shareholder vote. During the annual general meeting of network management software developer Netscout Systems Inc., the pension fund’s proxy refrained from voting on a measure to re-elect […]

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ESG integration hampered by pension plan sponsors, uncertainty around fiduciary duties: research paper

Gideon Scanlon — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 13:00:43 +0000

Board and executive-level efforts to integrate environmental, social and governance issues into pension plans’ investment strategies are frequently thwarted by unclear guidance from plan sponsors and uncertainty about fiduciary duties, according to a new working paper by the University of Pennsylvania. The paper concluded that efforts to implement ESG criteria in investment decision-making are frequently hamstrung […]

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U.S. public sector pension retains top executives despite trustee revolt

Gideon Scanlon — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 15:00:19 +0000

Two executives at the Pennsylvania-based Public School Employees Retirement System have survived an effort by trustees to oust them from their positions due to investment underperformance. On June 11, PSERS’ executive director Glen Grell and chief investment officer James Grossman were spared being put to a vote of no confidence after the vote was removed […]

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Board governance and the connection to asset allocation

mschmit — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 03:35:17 +0000

Well-governed boards have greater international diversification and lower cash holdings, according to a working paper by Carolina Salva and Nadège Bregnard from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. “Why would pension fund board governance shape asset allocations?” the paper asked. “In our view, asset allocations are potentially associated to board inefficiencies that can arise when […]

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