Corporate Governance Services

Corporate Governance Intelligence Council and Corporate Responsibility Advisory

Rivel’s Corporate Governance Intelligence Council (CGIC) is the only program of its kind to combine a 360-degree perspective from all your constituents – the global buy-side, proxy voters, senior management, investor relations, ESG professionals and the corporate secretary – to derive what is best-in-class corporate governance and most suitable for your company.

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Research on how proxy voters make decisions
Benchmarking on governance attributes
Voting analysis and risk assessment
Governance consulting
Internal and external governance communications and exposure evaluation
Custom engagement and disclosure messaging
Drive governance and engagement best practices

For both engagement and governance to be effective, they must be predicated on gaining an accurate and detailed understanding of the perspectives and expectations of the investment community on your company. By gaining actionable insight based on in-depth measures and analysis of the global investment community, companies are able to better identify and communicate their specific value proposition.

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Members receive custom benchmarking and gain access to the most powerful and comprehensive governance library and database in the industry. This is coupled with year-round consulting for all governance and engagement initiatives.

Rivel’s consultative analyses translate the data into actionable intelligence, working with you to formulate focused board and management strategy, engagement and disclosure.

The Rivel Corporate Governance Intelligence Council is changing how companies approach governance engagement and communications by providing reliable, actionable data from an unprecedented global network of governance professionals and institutional investors.

The Council combines the experiences and knowledge of its membership with insights derived from Rivel’s historical and constantly updating buy-side, proxy voting and corporate research databases. With this perspective on investor and public-company perceptions and practices, the Council brings exclusive, research-validated intelligence to everyday corporate governance decision-making.

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Corporate Governance Intelligence Council Member Benefits

The Corporate Governance Intelligence Council provides assistance for all your governance processes. In addition to our industry-leading library of governance and investor research, the CGIC also offers you:

Historical vote analysis: provides insight into how major investors voted on all proxy issues, company-specific and relative to ISS and Glass Lewis recommendations, peers, industry and index comparisons.
Company-specific governance benchmarking reports: providing customized, detailed comparisons between key aspects of governance, compensation, engagement and board structures with best practices as reported by peers.
Company-specific concierge service: year-round board and management consulting on governance and engagement matters.
Ongoing best practice reports: topics selected by the membership and assessed by buy-side investment and proxy-voting professionals worldwide.
Ongoing valuation research: how the global buy-side incorporates governance issues into its decision-making.
Rivel Flashpoint studies: immediate action, in-depth surveys among representative samples of governance professionals on topical issues/challenges of the day.
Access to the most comprehensive data library in the industry: over 570 resources and investor proxy policy disclosures.
Shareholder engagement services: guidance in preparing comprehensive investor engagement strategy and shareholder messaging that integrate all governance issues, including assistance in crafting custom discussion points, SEC disclosure, governance presentations and internal staff preparation.
SEC disclosure evaluation: review and provide recommendations on proxy disclosure; language clarity and consistency of messaging, format, design and enhanced disclosure and design opportunities.
Real-time Q&A with peers: Rapid Action Research where members discuss relevant practices and receive immediate feedback from fellow members.

These resources are supplemented on an ad-hoc basis by comprehensive surveys of timely issues of concern to governance professionals, in addition to practical updates on important legal and regulatory changes.

Corporate Responsibility Advisory

Sustainability matters. Stakeholders have steadily and increasingly focused on this issue over the past few years. Investors are now adopting formal policies governing their proxy-voting and investment strategies. The SRI crowd is growing, activist investors are using it as another potential lever against management, and it matters most to investors who are likely towards the very top of your investor profile – passive investors.

All companies in all sectors are constantly being scrutinized and evaluated on their corporate responsibility practices and communications. The need to increase awareness of the company’s commitment to ESG, to engage with, and understand, your various internal and external stakeholder groups is paramount to a successful sustainability strategy.

Clearly conveying the company’s ability and success in recognizing, navigating and acting upon sustainability challenges represents both a significant business risk and opportunity. But where do you start? How has your company integrated sustainability practices into the business strategy and how does this reflect on your culture? Are you focused on the right issues, the right stakeholders, the right frameworks and the right reporting agencies?

Understanding how to clearly communicate around an opaque and ever-changing issue can be challenging. At Rivel, we assist clients with navigating their corporate responsibility challenges the following ways:

Gap analysis and risk assessment:
- assessing vulnerability to third-party ratings agencies recommendations and information requests, identifying communications and process gaps.
- insight and comparison to peer companies and best-in-class sustainability practices, disclosures and engagement.
- reviewing internal structure, reporting and oversight.
Materiality assessment: engage internal and external stakeholders via independent interviews to understand the sustainability concerns of the various groups, and measure the perceptions and expectations of the company and sector.
Education: awareness training and education for management and the board of the ESG ecosystem.
Narrative: understand your audience and define the company message, assistance in creating high-impact, custom sustainability disclosures and engagement strategies.
Engagement: assistance during the project and beyond on engaging stakeholder groups and communicating across various channels for integrated messaging.
Reporting: option to design and develop standalone sustainability reports and website materials.
Consulting: throughout every phase of the project on impactful ESG developments.

For more information:

If you are interested in learning more about Rivel’s governance services please contact David Bobker, Managing Director, Governance, Sustainability and Board Evaluation at +1 (203) 803-1515 or via email at dbobker@rivel.com