BOSTON, March 12, 2008 – Goodwin Procter announced that its second annual Directors Forum was held today in conjunction with Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business at the Four Seasons in Boston. The event was limited to 100 members of public company boards and focused on the strategic and global issues facing public company directors.
“The positive feedback we received from our clients after last year’s event was astounding,” said Stuart M. Cable, a Goodwin Procter partner. “This event is an invitation-only opportunity for our clients’ board members to learn about corporate governance, globalization and other strategic issues from peers and experts in a cross-industry context and in roundtables segmented by industry.”
Sydney Finkelstein, the Steven Roth Professor of Management at Tuck School of Business, led a session on “Board Oversight – Learning From Others’ Mistakes,” in which he examined companies that stumbled and how to develop ideas and early warning systems to avoid strategic business missteps. Finkelstein is a nationally-renowned expert on strategic leadership, corporate crises and the management of mergers and acquisitions, and has consulted with numerous Fortune 500 companies on these issues. He is the author of Strategic Leadership: Top Executives and Their Effects on Organizations, Why Smart Executives Fail: And What You Can Learn From Their Mistakes and Breakout Strategy.
At luncheon, William C. Taylor, founding editor of Fast Company and co-author of Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win, highlighted the progressive companies and leaders that are defining the logic of business for the 21st century. He discussed how dynamic business leaders are rethinking competition, reinventing innovation, reconnecting with customers and redesigning work in a hyper-competitive marketplace.
Matthew Slaughter, Professor of International Economics, Associate Dean of the MBA Program and Senior Associate Director for the Center of International Business at Tuck School of Business, then addressed “Leadership in Today’s Economy” and how becoming globally engaged raises an important set of economic considerations for publicly traded companies. From 2005 to 2007, Slaughter served as a Member on the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President. In this Senate-confirmed position, he held the international portfolio and advised the President, Cabinet and many others on international trade and investment, currency, and energy markets.
About Goodwin Procter
Goodwin Procter LLP is one of the nation’s leading law firms with more than 850 attorneys in offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The firm’s core areas of practice are corporate, litigation and real estate, with specialized areas of focus that include financial services, private equity, technology, REITs and real estate capital markets, intellectual property, tax and products liability. Information may be found at www.goodwinprocter.com.