'Corporate Governance Essentials for New Directors' -- A Comprehensive Program On Board and Director Leadership

The Wharton School and Spencer Stuart Offer 'Corporate Governance Essentials for New Directors' -- A Comprehensive Program On Board and Director Leadership

The Wharton School's Aresty Institute of Executive Education Prepares New Board Members to Hit the Ground Running and Succeed in Today's Demanding Boardroom Environment

Today's corporate board members around the world face a host of increasing pressures and rapid changes. Directors are being held accountable in a wide range of areas, including strategic initiatives, compliance, and succession planning -- particularly important with CEO turnover rates up 70 percent over the past 10 years. To prepare directors for these challenges, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has partnered with Spencer Stuart, one of the world's leading executive search consulting firms, to jointly offer Corporate Governance Essentials for New Directors.

"The reality of shorter CEO tenure underscores the need for boards to adopt a disciplined approach to CEO succession planning, ensuring they plan for the long term but also are prepared if they need to accelerate a CEO transition," says Julie Hembrock Daum, practice leader for the North American Board Services Practice of Spencer Stuart. "Corporate Governance Essentials for New Directors shares best practices for designing an effective succession planning process, exploring mechanisms to monitor management's leadership development, and assessing bench strength. The program also covers how to effectively conduct a CEO search process."

The three-day intensive corporate governance program, designed to promote the leadership and effectiveness of newly appointed board members, will be offered at Wharton's Philadelphia campus on March 17-19, 2008. Preceding the program, on March 16, participants may attend an optional "Immersion Day" -- a full-day session outlining the foundations of finance and accounting as a refresher from a broad perspective for all board members.

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