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About GCGC
The GCGC conference series, which facilitates this best-in-class discussion forum, is an ECGI initiative supported by twelve universities (Harvard, Oxford, Tokyo, Singapore, Frankfurt, Stockholm University, Imperial College London, Columbia, Yale, Peking, Seoul, Stanford) together with a select group of corporate and other entities (Zurich AG, the European Investment Bank, Japan Exchange).
At a Columbia-ECGI-Oxford conference on “Corporate Governance after the Crisis” held in Oxford in 2012, a number of scholars affiliated with the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) initiated a discussion on the feasibility of organising a series of annual world-class conferences on corporate governance research.
From these discussions, a number of leading universities and institutions were approached. The positive response led to the formation of the Global Corporate Governance Colloquia. For an initial period of 12 years, the best research in law and finance relating to corporate governance each year will be brought together at a conference held at 12 major universities that are leaders in the fields of law and finance in the Americas, Asia and Europe.
These conferences will attract invited and contributed research papers of the highest scholarly quality. There will be at least one session devoted to the region or country where the conference takes place.
These events will be primarily “academic to academic” conferences with a few participants from industry and the public sector. Their purpose will be distinct from two established ECGI conference series, the Transatlantic Corporate Governance Dialogue (TCGD) and the EU-Asia Dialogue (EACGD) that are targeted at a non-academic audience.
To ensure an optimal degree of interaction between the participants and to emphasise quality, the total number of participants at each conference will be kept to 75 or less. Relevant measures will be put in place to ensure that this number is not exceeded.
The launch conference was held at Stanford University in June 2015. After that, the location of future conferences was determined by a random draw, subject to the following rules: no university partner will host the conference more than once in any 12 year period; and the same region can only host the conference every third year.
Governance
The Global Corporate Governance Colloquia (GCGC) has been established as a not-for-profit association under Belgian law with its seat in Brussels. This legal vehicle, governed by its Founding Articles and registered on 13 January 2014, involves leading universities (academic partners), practitioners (non-academic partners) and the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). The GCGC entrusts the branding, organisation and running of the conference series to the ECGI. The governance structure of the GCGC is shown below.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors is responsible for the overall direction of the GCGC, for the appointment of Committee members, for determining the content of the contract with the ECGI and for ensuring this contract’s oversight. This Board is comprised of 14 directors, one nominated by each of the 12 academic partners and two nominated by the ECGI. The majority of scientists-in-charge of the academic partners are Fellows of the ECGI. Each member of the Board has one vote. Observers may be invited from the practitioner partners. The Board is chaired by a representative of one of the partner universities. The chair will rotate regionally every two years. Two Vice-chairmen, similarly rotating, are appointed, one from among the representatives of the partner universities and the other from the ECGI.
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee ensures the proper running of the GCGC on a day-to-day basis. Its five members are designated by the Board, one from an academic partner from each region and two from the ECGI. The implementation and execution of day-to-day management will be delegated to a Secretary General, designated by the Board.
Scientific Committee
The Scientific Committee is responsible for the scientific quality of the conferences. This committee will be balanced between law and finance scholars. It will have 12 members who are appointed by the Board. Members comprise one representative from each academic partner, four of whom would be the Committee’s executive members. The Committee is chaired by the representative from the university hosting the next conference. Members will serve for two years and may be re-elected.
Conference Committee
The selection of the papers that are presented at each event is delegated to the Conference Committee which is chaired by the chair of the Scientific Committee. Its members are also members of the Scientific Committee.
External Auditor
An external auditor drawn from the Institute of Auditors of Belgium, is appointed by the Board for a period of three years.
GCGC Board
Chair
John Morley
Professor of Law, Yale University
Vice Chair
Jennifer Hill
Bob Baxt AO Chair in Corporate and Commercial Law, Monash University
Vice Chair
Claudia Custodio
Associate Professor of Finance, Imperial College London
Director
Ronald Gilson
Charles J. Meyers Professor of Law and Business, Stanford University, and Marc & Eva Stern Professor of Law and Business, Columbia University
Director
Umakanth Varottil
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore
Director
Erik Lidman
Associate Professor of Company Law, Stockholm School of Economics and Gothenburg University and Director of the SSE Corporate Governance Institute
Director
Marco Becht
Executive Director, European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and Professor of Finance and the Goldschmidt Professor of Corporate Governance, Solvay Brussels School
Director
Jeffrey Gordon
Richard Paul Richman Professor of Law and Co-Director, Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership, Columbia University
Director
Allen Ferrell
Harvey Greenfield Professor of Securities Law, Harvard University
Director
Ok-Rial Song
Professor of Law, Seoul National University
Director
Tobias Tröger
Professor of Private Law, Commercial and Business Law and Jurisprudence House of Finance and Leibniz Institute SAFE, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main
Director
Tomotaka Fujita
Professor of Commercial Law, The University of Tokyo
Director
Martin Schmalz
Associate Professor of Finance, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
Observer
Mr. Kunihiko Kato
Senior Manager, Japan Exchange Group (JPX)
Secretary-General
Elaine McPartlan
General Manager, European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)
