Board 3.0 : Bringing the Private Equity Model to Public Companies

Board 3.0 : Bringing the Private Equity Model to Public Companies

Friday, May 21, 2021

09:15 – 12:30 EDT (15:15 – 18:30 CEST)

Download programme

Read the report of the conference

About this event

A virtual conference exploring a new model for public company boards (“Board 3.0”) that featured the private equity portfolio company governance model, proposed by Professors Ronald Gilson and Jeffrey Gordon.

Gilson and Gordon presented an alternative, optional board model for the public company: “Board 3.0.” Boards need to evolve to deal with increased complexity, the reconcentration of share ownership, and the tensions between market myopia and management hyperopia, among other challenges. One promising route is to port over elements of the private equity portfolio company governance model to public corporations by adding some “empowered directors” who are “thickly informed, well-resourced, and highly motivated.” Apart from Gilson and Gordon’s specific proposal, the message is that the current board model is not fixed in stone. The world of private markets, venture capital, and private equity—all developments of the 1970s or later—has made effective use of alternative board models. The goal of this conference was to bring some of this governance experimentalism to public companies.

Reading Material:

Gilson, Ronald J. and Gordon, Jeffrey N., Board 3.0: What the Private‐Equity Governance Model Can Offer Public Companies (Summer 2020). 

Organisers

Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership, Columbia Law School

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

With special thanks to Millstein Center sponsor

Contact

Programme queries should be directed to Jeff Gordon (jgordon@law.columbia.edu)