Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

(0:00) Intro. (1:21) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (2:08) Start of interview. (2:41) Jennifer's "origin story."  (3:41) Founding a non-profit at the start of her career: Breakthrough Pittsburgh . (4:15) The start of her tech career with Yahoo! (7:12) Her roles post Yahoo!: founding and selling The Dealmap to Google . (9:20) Her transition and tenure as pre...

(0:00) Intro. (1:24) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (2:12) Start of interview. (4:04) Sonita's "origin story."  (5:45) Her professional career, starting with a startup in the gaming industry. (8:15) Her guiding principles for her career at the intersection of innovation, sustainability and digital transformation. (9:30) Her roles at HP, Siemens and PG&E . (...

(0:00) Intro. (1:14) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (2:02) Start of interview. (2:37) Coco's "origin story."  (4:32) Her professional background with HR, comp and IT. (6:32) Her time at Taos , a professional services business in IT consulting (17yrs). Ultimately acquired by IBM in 2021. (8:35) The origin story of her founding Athena Alliance (2016) as a non...

(0:00) Intro. (1:17) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (2:03) Start of interview. (3:08) Greg's "origin story."  (6:53) From the University of Georgia to Apple in Cuppertino. (10:50) The start of his entrepreneurial journey in 1992 with his first company. (13:03) The boom and bust cyclical nature of Silicon Valley. "[M]y father used to say that the stock marke...

(0:00) Intro. (1:23) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (2:10) Start of interview. (2:40) Patrick's "origin story."  (3:41) His time at Skadden and Olshan Frome Wolosky (leading shareholder activism legal practice). (4:38) Joining Vinson & Elkins to co-build shareholder activism practice. (6:40) Distinguishing between large, mid, and small cap activism. (10:14)...

(0:00) Intro. (1:10) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (1:57) Start of interview. (2:40) Leah's "origin story."  (3:41) Her time at IBM . (4:48) Her founding story of TaskRabbit (Boston, 2008). (12:43) The evolution of her board at TaskRabbit, and how to think about (startup) board composition and scaling .  (20:31) First CEO succession (after $12m Series B in...

(0:00) Intro. (1:10) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (1:58) Start of interview. (2:43) His role at EY and appointments at Harvard's Safra Center for Ethics (ELSCE), MIT and Boston University . (5:23) Defining AI. Reference to the 1956 Dartmouth AI conference . (8:29) GAI, AI market and valuations. (11:31) On AI Ethics for business and AI governance . Referen...

(0:00) Intro. (1:12) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (2:00) Start of interview. (3:10) Amy's "origin story."  (6:23) Her time leading Comcast Ventures , and how Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) has evolved. (9:08) Why SF/Silicon Valley as a tech hub for Comcast Ventures. (11:19) Her first public company board experience (with Adobe). (13:15) Differences on se...

(0:00) Intro. (1:04) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (1:51) Start of interview. (2:54) Terry's "origin story."  (5:18) The start of her legal career with O'Melveny & Myers. (8:35) Her time at Howard Rice and her current role at Arnold & Portner (the firms merged in 2012). (11:34) Her book ESG, the Professional's Guide to the Law and Practice of ESG , publish...

(0:00) Intro. (1:27) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (2:14) Start of interview. (3:30) Mary's "origin story."  (5:32) Her start as a whistleblower lawyer at Philips & Cohen. The advent of US Whistleblower reward programs ( CFTC , SEC , IRS , Transportation , Treasury , and DOJ soon). (7:50) The Theranos case and her representation of Tyler Schulz. (14:02) Mo...

(0:00) Intro (1:02) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (1:49) Start of interview.  (2:37) Katherine Henderson 's "origin story." (5:05) Amy Simmerman 's "origin story." (8:02) The origin and focus of their Delaware Corporate Law and Litigation Year in Review . (9:14) Caseload of Delaware Court of Chancery judges. (12:51) Cases involving director oversight dutie...

(0:00) Intro. (2:27) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (3:13) Start of interview. [Interviewer: UC Law SF Professor Abe Cable . Reference to his article " Does Trados Matter? " (2019)]. (4:17) Summary of the Trados case by Vice-Chancellor Laster.  (9:44) Concept of " residual value maximization. " Distinguishing between standard of conduct and standard of revi...

(0:00) Intro. (1:10) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (1:57) Start of interview. (4:00) Alexandre's "origin story." His time as Commissioner of the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) (2020-2023).  (7:34) On his OECD background note on Institutional Investors' Engagement in Latin America (2023). (14:56) Local institutional investors and pension...

(0:00) Intro. (0:55) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (1:41) Start of interview. (2:21) Richard's "origin story." His position as Chair of WSGR's public company practice and Chair of the Nasdaq Listing and Hearing Review Council . (7:30) On the origins and focus of WSGR's 2023 Silicon Valley 150 Corporate Governance Report . (12:00) What findings were most su...

(0:00) Intro. (1:36) About this podcast's sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (2:23) Start of interview. (3:33) On the collapse of SVB and its impact to Silicon Valley and the VC industry. (9:05) On the state of private markets . *Reference to Aileen Lee's post on Unicorn update (2013-2024). (14:35) How VCs are approaching tough conversations on shutdowns, downrounds and/or recap...

(0:00) Intro. (1:28) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (2:14) Start of interview. (3:09) Nick's "origin story."  (6:36) On his first startup IMix.com (focused on music streaming) (7:55) His pivot as an equity analyst at Sanford Bernstein. (8:32)  His focus on investing in and advising internet companies. (9:56) His time at Google (2010-2022), first in Canada t...

(0:00) Intro. (2:21) About this podcast's sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (3:08) Start of interview. (3:50) On   collapse of SVB & other banks. Lessons for board members. *Reference to video from Stanford Rock Center (12:00) On the state of private markets and unicorns . Downturn and shutdowns in VC-backed startups. * Per Pitchbook : “Approx 3,200 private VC-backed U.S. compa...

(0:00) Intro. (1:28) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (2:15) Start of interview. (3:16) Yifat's "origin story."  (6:20) Yifat's bio and positions at the University of Haifa and Technion - Israel Institute of Technology . (8:00) About Elizabeth Pollman , Professor at the Penn Carey Law School at the U. of Pennsylvania. (9:57) About their article, Ousted (2023)...

(0:00) Intro. (1:21) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . (2:08) Start of interview. (2:49) Larry's "origin story."  (4:49) About the Internet Security Alliance (ISA). Founded in 2000 by former Congressman Dave McCurdy , former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Larry joined as CEO from the beginning. "The ISA view is that we need to look at not just h...

*Prior episodes reviewing Succession: Season 1: E98 (May 22, 2023) Season 2: E102 (June 26, 2023) Season 3: E109 (Sept 11 , 2023) 0:00 -- Intro. 2:12-- About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . 2:58 -- Start of interview. 3:54 -- On the influence and leadership style of Logan Roy . The "ultimate corporate governance challenge." 6:41 --  Comparing the (fictional) Roy f...

0:00 -- Intro. 1:26-- About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . 2:13 -- Start of interview. 3:47 -- Ker's "origin story."  7:41 -- His history with the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai (AmCham). 9:42 -- About his book “ Selling to China. Stories of Success, Failure and Constant Change .” (2023). "We felt that it was important to remind people why we're doing t...

0:00 -- Intro. 1:26-- About this podcast's sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . 2:13 -- Start of interview. 2:45 -- John's "origin story." His time at WLRK and at the SEC . 4:15 -- His focus at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. 4:39 -- About his book THE PROBLEM OF TWELVE: When a Few Financial Institutions Control Everything (2023). Publisher: Columbia Global Reports...

0:00 -- Intro. 1:14-- About this podcast's sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . 2:09 -- Start of interview. 2:41 -- Abby's "origin story."  4:11 -- Her time at Hambrecht & Quist . Distinctions between IPO market in the 1990s and the current environment. Her time as a CEO of a venture-backed e-commerce company. Her time at Russell Reynolds (7 years). 10:36 -- The history, mission a...

0:00 -- Intro. 1:27 -- About this podcast's sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . 2:23 -- Intro of Webinar (and speakers) by Nancy Easterbrook , Executive Director of SVDX . 5:33 -- Start of webinar by Dan Siciliano , Chair of SVDX. 6:40 -- Some differences between private (VC-backed) and public boards. 9:23 -- The role of independent directors in venture-backed companies.  14:00 -...

0:00 -- Intro. 1:11-- About this podcast's sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel . 2:08 -- Start of interview. 2:47 -- Julie's "origin story." She started her work with boards in the early 1980s with Catalyst (a non-profit women's organization whose mission is to promote women in corporate America). 5:46 -- Now she's leading the Board Practice at Spencer Stewart. 6:15 -- About the 20...