BEST PRACTICES FOR ONLINE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE DISCLOSURE

In today’s environment of increasing scrutiny of publicly traded entities, it can be advantageous to post corporate governance information on your website where it is easily accessible to the investment community.

Transparency is a cornerstone of credibility

For many investors, the strength of a company’s leadership team will be a key investment criterion.  While posting management and board biographies is a good way to introduce the people involved, biographies do not provide much insight into how critical decisions are made and/or disclosed.  In addition to listing all of the directors and providing their bios, best practice is to include details of key charters and policies (or, preferably, the actual charters and policies in their entirety). 

Your website should be a convenient source of information for investors

Rather than asking investors to search for corporate governance materials elsewhere on their own, or making them leave your website by providing a link to SEDAR, these materials should be included directly on your website.  Moreover, corporate governance information should be easy to find through the company’s website navigation, and preferably be included in the main navigation.  Investors will appreciate the convenience afforded and, as an added benefit, you keep them on your website rather than losing them to a third party site.