Our Record of Achievement Built on Values ~ and Hard Work

The Centre for Corporate & Public Governance, now The Finlay Centre for Corporate& Public Governance, has been illuminating the evolution of private enterprise and public trust for more than four decades.  It is North America’s first fully independent think tank dedicated to advancing higher standards of ethics, transparency and accountability in major corporations and public institutions. It is the oldest continuously cited influencer on modern boardroom practices and the attributes of institutional trust.  The Finlay Centre was founded by J. Richard Finlay, one of the world’s most prescient voices for sound boardroom practices, sanity in CEO pay and the ethical responsibilities of trusted leaders.

Groundbreaking firsts

The Finlay Centre’s trailblazing research on ethics, social responsibility, governance have influenced generations of thoughtful decision-makers. It’s work and advocacy preceded today’s ESG by several decades. J. Richard Finlay founder coined the term stakeholder capitalism in the 1980s. Today, The Finlay Centre for Corporate & Public Governance continues to chart the path toward the timeless truths of integrity, diversity, equity and fairness that are the pillars of success — and legitimacy — in all trusted organizations.

Widely recognized for its contributions to landmark legislative and regulatory reforms, The Finlay Centre was the first organization of its kind to testify before hearings of the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1993 and 1994, at various regulatory reviews in the investment industry, at the banking committee of the Senate of Canada in 1993, 1994 and 2002 and at several committees of the House of Commons, which led to the passage of Canada’s first lobbying legislation. The Finlay Centre has also made groundbreaking submissions to the New York Stock Exchange and to the Banking Committee of the US Senate in advance of passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Many of today’s boardroom practices were first given voice by The Finlay Centre 

The same focus on transparency, accountability and ethical standards The Finlay Centre originally brought to the governance of corporations it also applies to public institutions.  Our critique of the governance practices of the IMF and the New York Federal Reserve, for instance, drew attention at the highest policy levels, including inside the US Congress.

The Finlay Centre has spotlighted shortcomings in the governance and accountability of the New York Stock Exchange, the New York Federal Reserve, the TSX, the Ontario Securities Commission and conflict rules pertaining to investment analysts. In recent years, we have focused on improvement opportunities in municipal governance and with public boards, commissions, agencies and adjudicative tribunals.  Too often these bodies give the illusion of public participation and access to information while effectively thwarting them with complicated bureaucratic machinery that make them impenetrable to ordinary stakeholders and everyday actors. 

Over the course of more than four decades The Finlay Centre and its founder have published hundreds of articles and commentaries.  Many have made their way into proceedings in the US Congress and Canadian parliament, as well into best selling books, scholarly papers and op-ed pages. For many years, its companion site, FinlayONgovernance, was one of the most widely read and quoted sources of cognitively diverse thinking and thought-provoking analysis about modern boardroom practices, the dysfunctional system for awarding CEO pay, and its malign outcome.

Uncanny prescience

With uncanny accuracy, in numerous op-eds, media interviews and on the pages of The Finlay Centre’s FinlayONgovernance, J. Richard Finlay was the first to identify existential governance failings and boardroom misadventures of major corporate players and stock market darlings. As he later pointed out to the US Senate Banking committee and its Canadian counterpart, these boardroom debacles were often fuelled by excessive CEO pay as well as an abundance of disengaged directors.  He also accurately predicted the demise of many, including Northland Bank, Confederation Life, Enron, WorldCom and Countrywide Financial, Crown Life, RT Capital, Corel, Xerox, YBM Magnex, Eaton’s, RIM, Lac Minerals, Nortel, Dennison Mines, Bre-X Minerals, Livent, Hollinger, Fidelity Trust, Standard Trustco and Unity Bank, Lehman Brothers and iconic Bear Stearns, where his two-part analysis called Did Bear Stearns Really Have a Board? captured rapt attention by regulators and law makers worldwide. He also put the boardroom practices of monoliths like Bank of America, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch up to the light of governance scrutiny like nobody had done before.

It is the unmatched prescience documentd in a chronicle of disaster foretold that substantially sets The Finlay Centre for Corporate & Public Governance apart from organizations claiming a governance focus that have more recently come into the picture. 

A recognized voice of record

Over the years, The Finlay Centre for Corporate & Public Governance has been called on to advise governments, the university community, NGOs, charitable organizations and major corporations. Three prime ministers of Canada have cited and benefited from our work. The Finlay Centre has worked with the media to educate on the role of ethics, social responsibility, trust and good governance as defining attributes in our economy and democracy and has participated with experienced journalists in breaking front page news stories. 

Writing the next chapters

Building on its record of leading-edge thinking and accomplishments, the lab activity at The Finlay Centre for Corporate & Public Governance continues at pace.  We’re examining and testing tomorrow’s game-changing ideas and tectonic shifts so others can begin to work and make a difference with them today.  We’re always happy to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

Illuminating the evolution of private enterprise and public trust over four decades. The Finlay Centre for Corporate  & Public Governance is the first and longest running think tank of its kind capturing the promise of the well-governed organization and the ethical practices that shape it. 

“For every major corporate policy, decision or public explanation, more and more people are asking: Is it right? Is it fair?  And most perplexing of all for the board of directors: is it in the public interest?

It now seems clear that the profitability and economic performance of a corporation will increasingly cease to be the sole criteria by which it is judged. A new set of legitimizers of public consent is coming to the fore, accelerated and strengthened by the harsh realization of the fragile interdependence that links our economy, our society and our environment.” ~J. Richard Finlay, Business Quarterly, 1979.

J. Richard Finlay, Business Quarterly, 1979.

(Presaging the arrival of ESG by more than 40 years)

“Sound governance is not some abstract ideal or utopian pipe dream. Nor does it occur by accident or through sudden outbreaks of altruism. It happens when leaders lead with integrity, when directors actually direct and when stakeholders demand the highest level of ethics and accountability.”
J.Richard Finlay — Addressing the Standing Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy, The Senate of Canada, 1994,  one of a number of apperances before the committees of the Parliament of Canada. 

J. Richard Finlay was the first witness ever to be designated an expert in corporate governance by the Senate Banking committee.