George Dallas and Mike Lubrano: Governance, Stewardship & Sustainability.

Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

0:00 -- Intro.

1:38 -- Start of interview.

2:56 -- George's "origin story." He's based in London since 1988. About his new role at the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI).

7:24 -- Mike's "origin story." On his experience with ADRs and cross-listings with Latin American companies. His experience working at NYC and Mexican law firms, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), OECD-Latin America Roundtable on Corporate Governance and Cartica Management.

15:52 -- On the origin and focus of their book "Governance, Stewardship and Sustainability." (2nd edition 2022). Based on (and used for) the ICGN course of the same name.

20:37 -- How they define stewardship, sustainability and ESG.

27:22 -- On ICGN Global Stewardship Principles and ICGN Global Governance Principles. The G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance.

31:07 -- On their ESG methodology, proposed in their book.

34:52 -- The Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal and case study.

39:51 -- On two-tiered boards, employee representation on boards, and purpose of the corporation (stakeholder v shareholder visions).

43:00 -- On the politicization of governance and the "anti-ESG" trend in the U.S.

48:20 -- On large asset managers passing-through voting power to beneficial owners (see BlackRock's Voting Choice).

51:17 -- Thoughts and recommendations for directors regarding shareholder activism (from Mike Lubrano)

53:44 -- Activism in emerging markets, and/or in controlled companies.

56:58 -- Thoughts and recommendations for directors (from George Dallas).

59:20 - What are the 1-3 books that have greatly influenced your life:

George:

1. The Art of Loving, by Erich Fromm (1956)
2. Author: Amor Towles.

Mike:

1. Author: Terry Pratchett (valued for his irreverence)
2. Author: Tony Judt (historian)
3. Author: Enrique Krauze (Mexican historian)

01:00:51 - Who were your mentors, and what did you learn from them?

1. George: John Holcomb (academic), Bob Monks and Nell Minow, Prof Christian Strenger (Germany)
2. Mike: Stephen Davis, George Dallas, Mats Isaksson (ex OECD)

01:03:46 - Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?

1. George: From Galatians 5:22-23, the fruit of the Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
2. Mike: "Good is good, too good is no good." (from his Sicilian grandmother)

01:05:12 - An unusual habit or an absurd thing that they love:

1. George: he plays in the banjo in local bluegrass band.
2. Mike: backyard pizza maker.

01:06:14 - The living person they most admire:

1. George: John Lewis (recently passed) and Jimmy Carter.
2. Mike: Barack Obama.

George Dallas is the Head of Content at the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and former Policy Director at the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN).

Mike Lubrano is a Managing Director of Valoris Stewardship Catalysts and former Managing Director of Corporate Governance and Sustainability at Cartica Management, LLC.

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You can follow Evan on social media at:

Twitter: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

You can follow Evan on social media at:

Twitter: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

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You can join as a Patron of the Boardroom Governance Podcast at:

Patreon: patreon.com/BoardroomGovernancePod

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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License