Race to Stay Ahead of the Regulators in Europe

From Corporate Board Member magazine, March/April, 2005:

To see what a big deal corporate governance has become in Europe, read the recent public utterances of some of the Continent’s biggest companies. Not the best of the biggest, but the worst—the most famous corporate miscreants. You can start with Vivendi Universal, which became notorious for the compensation lavished on its colorful chairman and chief executive Jean-Marie Messier before he found himself embroiled in allegations of fraud and stock manipulation in 2002. “Vivendi Universal applies the best international practices in corporate governance,” the Paris-based entertainment company claims on its website. Then Vivendi goes on to detail its recent adoption of a new charter enshrining specific good-governance practices, as well as its establishment of a board-level committee to make sure they get implemented.

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