China presents enormous opportunities for Silicon Valley companies, but it also offers a very different regulatory, cultural, financial and operational paradigm for boards and executives. What should you know when contemplating investments, operations or acquisitions in China? How should you balance the often conflicting requirements of U.S. and Chinese regulators? What do best practices look like? How can you comply with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a culture where acceptable norms can be very different than in the U.S.?

Why are corporate employees unwilling to report serious misconduct? Why are they also frequently unwilling to share good ideas for improving products, services and business processes? Fear of retaliation is most often cited for the failure to report misconduct; a sense of futility for the failure to suggest improvements. All too often, employees have a low level of trust in both management and the board.

From garage to mega company, recent events at HP have revealed a company that has lost its way and a board in turmoil…suffering leaks and the further degradation of its reputation as well as the premature departure of its recently hired CEO. And clearly, all to the detriment of the shareholders.

It is often said that “the most important function of a board is to hire and fire the CEO.” Yet the experience of many is that boards do a pretty good job on the hiring front and a not-so-good job on the “exit.” This podcast focuses on the pitfalls of CEO changes and how to avoid them.

Leading directors share why they find NACD membership invaluable.

Watch SVNACD’s latest video podcast!

Interview with Robert Finocchio, Chairman of the Board, Santa Clara University

Hosted by James Balassone, Executive-in-Residence, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

Look out Silicon Valley! Although large parts of the 2000+page Dodd-Frank Act focus on regulating financial institutions, many sections address executive compensation and corporate governance provisions, which apply to all U.S. publicly traded companies. The panel will pay particular attention to: “Say-on-Pay,” “Clawbacks,” Compensation Committee independence, and “Proxy Access.”

What elements of corporate risk are not receiving adequate Board oversight: (1) strategic, (2) financial, (3) compliance, (4) operational, (5) technology and/or (6) unknown? Is it Management’s or the Board’s responsibility to provide assurances that enterprise risk are all appropriately addressed and within the company’s agreed-upon risk appetite and tolerances? Is it Management’s or the Board’s responsibility to make a (continuing) assessment of whether the corporation has the right controls and processes in place? Should the Audit Committee undertake the Board’s role or a separate Risk Management Committee? Should the Board oversight of “financial” risk be separated from “business” risk?

Dan Siciliano and Eric Finseth discuss technology (particularly communications technology) has impacted all aspects of modern life, including the manner in which the meetings of a company’s board and of its various committees are recorded and scrutinized by shareholders, regulators and lawyers — oftentimes after the fact.

Interview with: Michael Hackworth, Chairman, Cirrus Logic, Inc
Hosted by: Lon Allan, Chairman, SVNACD