We think a think tank should actually think.
The ethics and governance innovation lab of The Finlay Centre for Corporate & Public Governance has pioneered important developments in the governance of major corporations and public institutions over the past four decades. Many of the modern practices and expectations of today’s best boards and public organizations were conceived or refined through the work of The Centre and have been cited in numerous scholarly papers and in legislative debates.
What will the best governance look like five or ten years from now? How can citizens and shareholders better engage with the apparatuses of power that shape their lives? Why aren’t we making more progress with gender diversity in the boardroom and in the executive suite? Why is it that CEO compensation so often fails to pass the smell test? If Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and, more recently, Silicon Valley Bank of California, First Republic Bank and Signature Bank didn’t have a board, would it have made any difference?
We’re examining and testing tomorrow’s game-changing ideas so forward-thinking actors can begin to lead and win with them today.
Interested? Drop us a line and tell us why.
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.
The Financial Times, August 2023
The New York Times, August 10, 2023