The Best Interests of the Corporation (Webinar)

The corporation is a separate legal entity (indeed a “corporate person”) and those who make central decisions on behalf of the corporation are compelled to act in its best interests. And yet the corporation’s best interests remain an elusive and contested topic. It is further obscured by the emergence of highly complex corporate structures and unprecedented complexity of corporate shareholders – institutional investors, retail investors, preferred shareholders, common shareholders, majority and minority shareholders, influential or activist shareholders, mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, private equity, venture capital, voting blocks, shareholders investing in competing firms, long and short positions, proxy voting and share lending, and so on. And this complexity comes before we even introduce the broader set of stakeholders, such as employees, suppliers, customers, communities, governments, and the society at large.

Our distinguished panel will discuss the challenges related to looking after the corporation’s best interests in highly complex corporate environments with shareholder and stakeholder governance.

About the Speakers:

Jean-Jacques Ruest served as President and Chief Executive Officer of CN – Canadian National Railway from 2018 to 2022. He was previously Executive Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer since January 2010, with responsibility for providing the strategic direction and leadership for CN’s Sales, Marketing and CN Supply Chain Solutions groups. Mr. Ruest joined CN in 1996 at the time of the privatization. Prior to this, Mr. Ruest worked for 16 years at a major international chemical company. Mr. Ruest holds an MBA in Marketing from HEC Montréal (Université de Montréal) and a Bachelor of Science degree in applied chemistry from Université de Sherbrooke. He also completed the executive program of the University of Michigan Business School, and CN’s Railroad MBA program. Over the course of his career, Mr. Ruest has been honored many times by the business community, notably as 2019 Railroader of the Year and an Inductee to the International Maritime Hall of Fame in 2017. He is currently serving as Executive in Residence at Faculty of Business Administration, Laval University.

Mikko Ketokivi is a Professor of Operations Management and Organization Design at IE University’s business school in Madrid, Spain. Dr. Ketokivi teaches organization design and governance in IE’s International MBA, Global Online MBA, and Executive MBA Programs. In addition to IE University, he has taught at various European and American business schools. Dr. Ketokivi’s recent managerially oriented book (with Joseph T. Mahoney) Efficient Organization: A Governance Approach (Oxford University Press, 2023) examines the economic foundations of effective governance, including fiduciary duties and the best interests of the corporation.

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