Board Meeting Presentations

In 2016, a major global information technology company asked Gib Hedstrom to meet with its Board Governance Committee. This Committee had been receiving annual updates on “corporate social responsibility,” but at the last meeting they decided they needed additional training and counseling on the subject.

Many clients (Chief Sustainability Officers, VPs of EHS or equivalent) provide a periodic (typically annual) update for their Board of Directors. They often ask for our review and comment on their draft slides. Because we know many “tricks of the trade” about how to engage board members effectively on sustainability, we can offer concrete examples and suggestions based on experience.

In 2015, the CEO of a major North American utility invited Gib Hedstrom to lead a one-hour discussion about sustainability with its full Board of Directors. Following that presentation, Gib joined the Board and executive team for an evening and a half-day scenario planning exercise. The purpose of the exercise was to determine how the company would respond to future disruption in its industry, while being able to meet the ever-increasing demands of its stakeholders regarding its sustainability performance.

Twice a year for seven years, Gib Hedstrom joined the full (~two hour) meetings of Allied-Signal’s Board Corporate Responsibility Committee. Gib was in the boardroom for Larry Bossidy’s first committee meeting upon becoming CEO. As the last agenda item of each meeting, Gib met in “executive session” with the outside directors.

Gib advised the Board of Directors of Ashland Inc. during a time of massive transformation in the late 1990s. At the time, Ashland’s businesses included Arch Coal, Ashland Petroleum, Ashland Chemical Company, Ashland Distribution, and APAC (an asphalt paving company).

Our client, the Vice President of EHS and Sustainability at a $20B manufacturing corporation, asked our help in preparing his annual sustainability update for the full Board of Directors meeting.

Gib Hedstrom recently was asked by a $10B chemical company to provide a 45-minute external report on “Sustainability: Update, Trends and Implications” for the Board of Directors meeting.